Truly one of the greatest Italian lyric sopranos of the later half of the twentieth century, Mirella Freni made her mark in a wide-range of repertoire. After beginning in the lighter soprano repertoire, she was able to later take on fuller, more dramatic roles with no loss of her vocal resources.
She was a renowned Mimi, singing on the successful recording of La boheme with Pavarotti conducted by Karajan.
Later in career, she also managed to be successful in Russian repertoire, especially Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. This was in large part because of her marriage to celebrated bass Nicolai Ghiarov. Here are many selections of Freni in some of her celebrated roles to give you an idea of the progression of her career:
Her italianate way of phrasing is put to fine example in this excerpt from "Le nozze di Figaro":
In addition to the Italian repertoire, she was also successful in the French operas Faust and Romeo et Juliette:
To me, her greatest interpretive and vocal gifts were exhibited in the Italian repertoire. Here are several of greatest roles:
1 comment:
Ooo! I hadn't ever heard her do the Jewel Song. Loved it! The slower tempo is actually kinda nice.
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