Monday, September 14, 2009

Soprano Trio

Patricia Racette opens tomorrow night in SF Opera's new production of Il Trittico. She's singing all three soprano leads, and following in different ways in the footsteps of various soprano giants.
Only a few sopranos have sung all three, very different leads. The ones I know about are Renata Scotto and Teresa Stratas, at the Met, and Beverly Sills - bet you weren't expecting that name - at NYCO. If you know of others, please tell me.

Along with those three towering singers are the three who originated the roles at the Met premiere of Trittico in 1918: Claudia Muzio was the first Giorgetta, Geraldine Farrar the first Suor Angelica, and Florence Easton the first Lauretta.

As I told Racette a couple of weeks ago during our talk, the dramatic intensity of her last Butterfly here killed me. The Trittico soprano leads are a tour-de-force of a different kind. From the looks of the video preview at the Trittico page at SF Opera, I think she might be about to do it again.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

I must do right by my diva, then, and tell you that Cheryl Barker sang all three Trittico heroines for Opera Australia in 2007. She had previously sung Giorgetta and Angelica at ENO but tacked Lauretta on for us. And pretty much aced all three.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thank you! Exactly what I want to know!

winpal said...

You can add Diana Soviero in Dallas, and Catherine Malfitano in Chicago.

Thanks for alerting us to the video clip. It wasn't there a couple days ago when I checked. Looks very promising indeed!!

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thank you!

Yes, I agree. I can't go tonight because it's expected to run to 11:20, meaning it'll be 11:30 or later when I get out. Just can't, on a day when I have to be at work the next day.