Renata Scotto (February 24th, 1934 - August 16th, 2023) was an Italian soprano, opera director, and voice teacher. Recognised for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered to have been one of the preeminent opera singers of her generation.
For more than 40 years, she performed in some 45 roles, first in Italy, then as a leading soprano of the Metropolitan Opera. She is remembered especially for the title roles of Verdi's La traviata, performed for her stage debut in Milan in 1952, and Puccini's Madama Butterfly, which was her first role at the Met and her last there in 1987, but also for belcanto works such as Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. She appeared in the first telecast from the Metropolitan Opera in 1977, as Mimi in Puccini's La bohème, alongside Luciano Pavarotti. As opera director she worked for the Met, the Arena di Verona, and other leading opera houses.
Feature Opera:
Il pirata (The Pirate) is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with an Italian libretto by Felice Romani which was based on a three-act mélodrame from 1826 Bertram, or The Pirate by Charles Nodier and Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor. The premiere, given on October 27, 1827, was "an immediate and then an increasing, success. By Sunday, December 2, when the season ended, it had been sung to fifteen full houses". For the lead tenor Rubini, "it marked the defining performance for the tenor" and the newspaper reviews which followed all agreed with the composer's own assessment.
Cast:
Imogene - Maria Callas
Gualtiero - Pier Miranda Ferraro
Orchestra and Chorus of the American Opera Society
Recorded Live in Carneige Hall 1959
Nicola Rescigno - conductor