Verdi, Traviata, Sempre Libera, Galli-Curci youtube
Gounod, Roméo et Juliette, Je veux vivre, Galli-Curci youtube
Grieg, Peer Gynt, Solveig’s Song, Galli-Curci youtube
Massenet, Crépuscule, Galli-Curci youtube
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Galli-Cuci
Amelita was born in Milan on November 18, 1882 to Enrico Galli, a successful Milan businessman, and Enrichetta Bellisoni, whose own parents had been an opera conductor and a soprano of some renown. She began studying piano with her mother at age 5.
Amelita’s formal education was obtained at the International Institute (1895-1901) and the Liceo Alessandro Marzoni (1901-1905) where, besides demonstrating her musical abilities, she became fluent in five languages.
Having made significant progress on the piano, Amelita seemed destined for a career as a pianist. In 1905, at the age of 23, she won the conservatory’s gold medal prize for piano and was offered a professorship. She accepted the position and planned to settle down to a life as a teacher and performer.
Not long after, however, the composer Mascagni, an old family friend, changed her life forever. During a home opera recital of I Puritani, Mascagni listened to Amelita as she sang the soprano rôles and at the end told her that she would indeed be a great artist — but not a pianist. She would instead become a great singer. On his recommendation she promised Mascagni she would try.
Through years of intense study, Amelita had learned to master the piano. But her singing was almost entirely self-taught. Her grandmother, an idol since youth who had agreed to help her train, died within a year of the young girl’s decision to devote her life to song. Soon afterward her father’s business began to suffer, and he along with his two sons moved to Argentina to attempt a comeback. (He would never see Amelita again.) Amelita and her mother remained in Italy, and for the next two years she trained herself in the art of singing.
Finally, in the autumn of 1906 Amelita was invited to sing at a private musicale at which a noted conductor was present. On hearing her sing, he recommended her to an opera-manager friend who was looking for inexpensive talent. On the following day she received her first offer to sing Gilda in ten performances for the sum of 300 lira.
On the night of her debut, her “Caro Nome” moved the audience to wild and enthusiastic approval. The unknown soprano had made her first mark on the world of opera — a mark that would remain indelible. Within two short years she would be chosen to sing Bettina in the premiere performance of Bizet’s Don Procopio, and her career would no longer be in doubt.
After her marriage in 1908 to the Marchése Luigi Curci, Amelita Galli would henceforth bear her husband’s name. During their early years together Amelita would tour Italy, Egypt, and South America adding to her repertoire at every step. After her 1909 tour in Italy the Ravenna Il Foro Romagnolo proclaimed, “Galli-Curci is such a singer as to well merit the name of diva, because she calls to mind the virtuosa of another period.”
In Italy, Amelita suffered what was perhaps the only real disappointment of her career. Ever a lady of grace, she had accepted even the lesser rôles in South America without complaint. But having asked the director of La Scala whether she could sing the lead in a revival of Sonnambula, she was offered a minor rôle instead. With her inimitable poise she replied, “Dear Mingardi, don’t forget this — I shall never put my feet in this theater again.” And she never did
During the pre-war years her career blossomed, and she continued to add to her repertoire. She made a second tour of South America as well as singing in Madrid and in Russia only months before the outbreak of the Great War.
Later that year she began her third tour of South and Central America and Cuba. From Havana she travelled to New York with the intention of embarking on a return voyage to Italy. Her visit was little noticed by that city’s glitterati, but there she did meet the director of the Chicago Opera Company who convinced her to delay her return for two Rigoletto performances in Chicago. After hearing her during the rehearsal, he decided to extend her contract for the entire season.
Her first appearance on stage on November 18 , 1916 (her 34th birthday) was to an audience that was largely unfamiliar with the diminutive soprano from Milan. But her performance made opera history. So frenzied was the approbation that the presses were stopped to make way for the review. Amelita had conquered the New World by storm.
Her immigration to the United States also resulted in a contract with Victor Records in New York City. A quickly arranged tour was conducted throughout the country after her Chicago success, and her phonograph records became immediate best sellers. “Caro Nome” sold 10,000 copies in its first Chicago release alone, an unprecedented number at the time. It is thanks to this contract that subsequent generations have been privileged to hear Amelita’s vocal technique.
Amelita’s Metropolitan Opera debut was as Violetta on November 14, 1921. From then until 1924, she was a permanent member of both the Chicago Opera and the Metropolitan; after that, she remained permanently in New York until her retirement from the stage. Her farewell performance was as Rosina on 24 January 1930.
Although she continued to give recitals throughout the world, Amelita’s glorious voice began to suffer during the ensuing years due to a throat tumor (later diagnosed as a goiter). She finally consented to surgery in 1935. She attempted a comeback the following year at the Chicago Civic Opera, but though the critics were gentle there were no rave reviews. She gave a number or recitals during the 1936-37 season and received positive, if not enthusiastic, reviews on every occasion; but at 55, her voice was feeling the ravages of time and disease. She cancelled the following season, but accepted her retirement with the same grace with which she had previously accepted the accolades of the world, commenting that, “We don’t play with the same toys all of our lives!” She spent the remainder of her days happily with her second husband, Homer Samuels, in La Jolla, California. There she died on November 26, 1963, eight days after her 81st birthday.
Taken from text copyright © 1997-2007 by John Craton
Amelita Galli-Curci, née Amelita Galli, (born Nov. 18, 1882, Milan, Italy—died Nov. 26, 1963, La Jolla, Calif., U.S.), was an Italian-born American singer and one of the outstanding operatic sopranos of her time.
In her prime, many considered Galli-Curci to be the best lyric coloratura soprano of her time. Unfortunately, by the time that electrical recordings appeared, Galli-Curci’s voice was no longer what it once had been. Hence, the best recordings of Galli-Curci usually were acoustical recordings and were made in the teens and early twenties of the twentieth century.
Sempre Libera
Violetta:
Sempre libera degg´io
folleggiare di gioia in gioia,
vo´che scorra il viver mio
pei sentieri del piacer.
Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia,
sempre lieta ne´ ritrovi,
a diletti sempre nuovi
dee volare il mio pensier
Alfredo:
Amor è palpito dell´universo intero,
misterioso, altero,
croce e delizia al cor.
Violetta:
Oh! Oh! Amore!
Follie! Gioir!
Free and Aimless
Violetta
Free and aimless I frolic
From joy to joy,
Flowing along the surface
of life’s path as I please.
As the day is born, or as the day dies,
Happily I turn to the new delights
That make my spirit soar.
Alfredo
Love is a heartbeat throughout the universe,
mysterious, altering,
the torment and delight of my heart.
Violetta
Oh! Oh! Love!
Madness! Euphoria!
Je veux vivre
Je veux vivre
Dans ce rêve qui m’enivre
Ce jour encore!
Douce flamme
Je te garde dans mon âme
Comme un trésor!
Cette ivresse de jeunesse,
Ne dure, hêlas! qu’un jour!
Puis vient l’heure.
Où l’on pleure.
Le coeur cède à l’amour,
Le bonheur fuit sans retour!
Je veux vivre . . .
Loin de l’hiver morose,
Laisse-moi sommeiller,
Et respirer la rose,
Avant de l’effeuiller.
I want to live
I want to live
In this dream that intoxicates me
More of this day!
Sweet flame
I will guard you in my soul,
Like a treasure!
This drunkenness of youth,
Only lasts, alas, one day!
Then comes the hour,
When one cries.
The heart yields to love,
Happiness flees without ever returning!
I want to live . . .
Away from the dreary winter,
Let me stay asleep,
And breathe the rose’s odor,
Before it withers.
This is a Norwegian song, but she is not singing in Norwegian. In fact, I can’t really hear in which language she is singing, but he English is based on the Norwegian original by Grieg from Peer Gynt.
Solveigs sang
Kanske vil der gå både Vinter og Vår,
og næste Sommer med, og det hele År; —
men engang vil du komme, det véd jeg visst;
og jeg skal nok vente, for det lovte jeg sidst.
Gud styrke dig, hvor du i Verden går!
Gud glæde dig, hvis du for hans Fodskammel står!
Her skal jeg vente til du kommer igen;
og venter du histoppe, vi træffes der, min Ven!
Solveig’s Song
Perhaps there will go both winter and spring,
And next summer also and the whole year,
But one time you will come, I know this for sure,
And I shall surely wait for I promised that last.
God strengthen you where you go in the world,
God give you joy if you before his footstool stand,
Here shall I wait until you come again,
And if you wait above, we’ll meet there again, my friend!