Verdi: Aida

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Cat No: 8110129-30

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Release Date: 10 January 2003

Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 2

Barcode: 636943112922

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: VERDI

Description
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-190)AidaThe British company Decca began recording complete operas inItaly in 1951 when they made La Boh?â?¿me (Naxos 8.110252-3). As a venue theychose the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, situated off the Viadel Corso in Via Condotte, near the Spanish Steps. The hall in which therecording was made is long and narrow, with a very high ceiling and a finebalcony, which also contained seats. The venue proved ideal for mono recordingwith the control room in an adjoining room on the same ground floor level. Thisrecording of Aida was made in July 1952 and was a much larger undertaking thanthe previous year's efforts. The Triumphal Scene remains a challenge to anyrecording engineer, even today, but the difficulties would have been fargreater fifty years ago with far fewer microphones and equipment that was muchprone to break down at crucial moments. Rome in July is also invariably veryhot.The soprano Renata Tebaldi (b. 1922) studied at the BoitoConservatorio in Parma, before making her debut as Elena in Mefistofele atRovigo in 1944. She sang for Toscanini at the opening concert at the Teatroalla Scala, Milan, in 1946. Later that season she was engaged as Eva inMeistersinger and Mim?â?¼ in La Boh?â?¿me. Her first appearance outside Italy was inLisbon in 1949 and the following year Tebaldi made her London debut asDesdemona in Otello when the La Scala Company appeared at Covent Garden. Herinternational introduction came through her first American engagement as Aidain San Francisco in 1950, soon followed by three seasons in Rio de Janeiro. TheItalian soprano first sang at the Metropolitan in New York in 1955, a house shewould grace for seventeen further seasons before retiring from the stage in1973 and the concert hall three years later. Tebaldi appeared regularly at theVienna State Opera and also sang in Chicago and Japan. As the most significantItalian lirico spinto soprano during her career, she also recorded prolificallyfor Decca over nearly a quarter of a century. The Italian mezzo-soprano Ebe Stignani (1904-1974) studiedat the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples with Agostino Roche. Shemade her debut in that city in January 1925. The following year she sang inVenice and in October first appeared at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, in aperformance of Beethoven's Choral Symphony under Toscanini. Two months latershe was Eboli in Don Carlo. Over the next four decades her r?â??les in this housewould include Adalgisa in Norma, Azucena in Il trovatore, Laura in La Giocondaand Leonora in La favorita. In 1927 Stignani appeared at the Teatro Colon,Buenos Aires, for the first of numerous seasons and at the Teatro Municipal,S?â?úo Paolo. She continued to sing in all the principal houses throughout Italy.Her Covent Garden debut in London was as Amneris in the 1937 Coronation season.She would return again in 1939, in 1952 (with Callas in her London debut asNorma), 1955, 1957 (again with Callas in Norma) and, finally, i
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