Mirella Freni (1935-2020)

[Alan Howe]

One of the great post-war lyric sopranos, she died yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BGRAEbWpu4

[adriano]

Yes, Alan!
And I will never forget the nice time I had with her and Nicolai every time they stayed here in Zurich. They were so friendly and uncomplicated!
She remains an immortal Mimì and Michaela.
I think the two Puccini operas Mirella recorded with Karajan for Decca are the very best for ever - in all aspects. Not to speak about the two Gounod operas she sang for EMI. And she did also splendid recordings of "L'amico Fritz, "Carmen" etc.... The part of Michaela she recorded three times and that of Madama Butterfly and Mimi two times on different labels and with different conductors. Not to speak about more live performances on CD and DVD...

[Alan Howe]

For me, she will always be the ideal Mimi, Butterfly and Micaëla. For us at UC it would be appropriate, as Adriano mentions, to point out her superlative recording of Mascagni's relatively unknown L'Amico Fritz, made in the late sixties with Pavarotti long before he became a superstar:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mascagni-Lamico-Fritz-Pietro/dp/B00004U0C6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=l%27amico+fritz&qid=1581375949&sr=8-1
Download and audio excerpts here:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7931514--mascagni-lamico-fritz

When I lament the state of singing these days, as I have done with regard to various recent Korngold performances, it is to Freni and Pavarotti that I turn for solace...

[Sharkkb8]

I was fortunate enough to see her in Manon Lescaut at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in 1983 or 1984, I think it was.  Just a memorable, shattering performance. One of the few I can remember just so vividly, some 35+ years later.  RIP.

[alberto]

Freni recorded also a rather magnificent and fairly unsung work: La Canzone dei Ricordi by Giuseppe Martucci, with Muti and La Scala Orchestra (1996 release, much later re-released in a box)
As to personal memories, I am fond to have seen and heard Freni in Bohème, Nozze di Figaro (as Countess, conductor Abbado) and, much later, in Eugene Onegin and The Maid of Orleans (the last in 2002).   

[adriano]

Here in Zurich, in 1999, she also sang the first Swiss performance of Giordano's "Madame Sans-Gêne". It was great fun with her, although she was not very happy with conductor Welser-Möst (no comment...).
Of course we also enjoyed her in Zurich as Fedora (with both Domingo and Carreras), in a production which was usually sung over here by Agnes Baltsa (no comment...)
DVDs and CDs of Freni's "Fedora" from other opera house's prodcutions are still available.

[semloh]

Oh dear, how silently this loss slipped by here in Australia. Such a great artist, and another in a series of major losses in the last few months. Very sad.