end of an act or the final curtain. Then pandemonium who was to play such an important role in her artistic life. breaks loose. At her second performance last season, a She studied three years with Carmen Melis, the Sardinian To.rca with Jussi Bjocrling, she and the tenor broke the soprano, who had performed with the Chicago Opera known house record for curtain calls. Nobody is around Company and who, for HMV, sang the title role in the to say how many Caruso used to rake, Flagstad and Mel- first full -length recording of To.cca. chior may have garnered more; but in this generation no In 1944 the Parma Conservatory was bombed and had other artist has kept the customers around so long. to close. Tebaldi left without receiving her diploma. On It also might be said that the performance broke the May 23 of that year she made her debut at Rovigo as house box -office record at so- called regular prices- bring- Helen in Rle/istojele. Her big break came in the spring ing in just two dollars short of Szo,000. In fairness it must of 1946 when she was summoned from Brescia to sing be added this was an open or nonsubscription performance before Toscanini, who was preparing a concert for the when the house is scaled a little higher: and it was not the opening <>f the rebuilt Scala.

first Toe,/ of the season, so the full press list 1 thirty pairs "I sang 'La mamma morta' from Andrea Chénier and on first performances, only half that number on succeeding then the Maestro let me sing the whole last act of .

ones 1 had not been pulled. Notwithstanding, it was still He said, 'Brava, Grava; and told his son \\/alter to take my a remarkable financial success. nantie and address," she recalls. Of six artists chosen to sing In this country alone Tebaldi has sold as of last March at the reopening of , Tebaldi was the only new 588,689 records. London Records estimates that the United one. She did excerpts from Rossini's itfo.rè, including the States accounts for about forty -five per cent of the world prayer. market. Thus probably she can quite safely be credited Engagements followed in Naples, Trieste, Barcelona, Rio with membership in the million record club. She was de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires, and more in signed by London Decca in 1947 though an option for Milan. Under Tullio Serafin she sang Die Meirterringer at her services existed from the year before. A few 78s were La Scala and journeyed with the troupe to Edinburgh and made at that time. Her first major recording session, how- London for performances of the Verdi Requiem and Otello ever, took place in 1949 in Victoria Hall, Geneva. The at the Festival and Covent Garden. Twice she had the

product of those takes 1 Lt. -1421 is still available and has honor of opening the season at La Scala, first as Desdemona never slipped from the best -seller list. There have been and later in the title role of Catalani's La Wally. In Naples three more solo recitals, including the wonderful collection she is, if anything, more popular than in Milan and it was of songs (any library without La Promessa and Lungi dal there, during the Verdi celebration of 1951, that she sang caro bene is not complete), a disc of duets with Del the first performance anywhere in more than a century Monaco, last season's concert with Simionato and Bastianini of Giovan)ta lArco. In this little known work she also from the stage of the Chicago , and ten com- appeared with the San Carlo company in . Other such plete operas. There is another solo operatic recital to be rare items in the Tebaldi repertoire are Rossini's L'A.credio issued soon, and last summer for London she recorded di Cortino and Spontini's Olt')upia, which she sang at the Andrea Chénier, with Del Monaco and Bastianini. Her Festivals of 1948 and 1949; Handel's Giulio Cavalleria ru.rticana with Bjoerling is to be issued by RCA Cesare, which she performed in the old Roman theater at Victor. Tebaldi herself is, however, not notably a disco- Pompeii; Casavola's Salammb6, sung in ; Spontini's phile. She has no outstanding preference among recorded Fernando Cortez; and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. artists, and she hasn't time for phonographic antiquities. Tebaldi's first American Continued on page 15o Her conceptions are her own. was born in Pesaro, Rossini's birthplace, which may be one reason she sings " Selva opaca" from William Tell more beautifully than anyone else in the world today. It may also account somewhat for her sure musicianship. The soil and air are different in that part of the world; apparently there is magic in the flat stretch y of country through which the Po flows leisurely toward the Adriatic. Surely there must be something more than accident in the fact that Toscanini and Verdi and Stradi- varius, not to mention any number of fine singers, all come from within a few miles of one another. Tebaldi's father was a cellist in the opera houses of Pesaro and Parma. Her mother, who is her constant com- panion, is also musical though she never has been a pro- fessional. Renata grew up at Langhirano. near Parma, and like Galli -Curci was headed toward a career as a pianist. For six years she studied at the keyboard before it was discovered she had a voice. Her first singing masters were Campo Galliani and Giuseppe Pais. At eighteen she SEDGE LEBLANG entered Parma Conservatory, the alma mater of Toscanini, A rchrarral for Verdi's Otello, with Fritz Stiedry coodurti,1g.

NOVEMBER 1957 49