Above: Celestina Casapietra as Eva in DIE MEISTERSINGER
The death of the Italian soprano Celestina Casapietra has been reported. Hers was a voice I discovered during the months of the pandemic, when I had so much free time to explore YouTube and hear singers I had only heard of until then.
The soprano is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Maddalena de Coigny in a film of Umberto Giordani's ANDREA CHENIER in which she co-stars with Franco Corelli and Piero Cappuccilli. Watch excerpts from the film here. Of course I'd known about this film for nearly 50 years but somehow I'd never watched it; finding the scenes on YouTube led me to seek out more of Ms. Casapietra's singing, and to learn about her career.
A native of Genoa, the soprano made her operatic debut at the Teatro Nuovo, Milan, in 1963. Conductor Otmar Suitner signed her to the Berlin State Opera in 1965 where she appeared for thirty years. She also sang at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, at Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Salzburg, and The Bolshoi.
Ms. Casapietra's repertoire included Donna Anna, Agathe in FREISCHUTZ, Elsa in LOHENGRIN, Massenet's Manon, Handel's Cleopatra, and Tchaikovsky's Tatyana. She recorded for Berlin Classics, Philips, and Eurodisc.
Celestina Casapietra's son, Björn Casapietra, is a singer, actor, and television personality based in Berlin.
Ms. Casapietra sings "Ozean, du Ungeheuer" from Weber's OBERON here.
And here are more samplings of the Casapietra voice:
Celestina Casapietra - Come scoglio ~ COSI FAN TUTTE
Celestina Casapietra - Dich teure Halle ~ TANNHAUSER
Celestina Casapietra - Sehr behaglich ~ Mahler 4th Symphony
~ Oberon