Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Opera singer best known for a 24-year tenure at La Scala, having been hired by Toscanini after an audition where she accompanied herself on piano.
Eight records
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
Were you born in a musical family?
My mother was a very good musician. She plays so well piano fort. My my my father now he was officer and it was very interesting for music. Yes.
Presenter asks
Who did you study with in Paris?
I start to study privately and uh I had the suggestion of maestro corto for piano.
Presenter asks
When did you start singing?
I was a very young, and I went in um opera to herd … I felt so enthusiastic. I said I want to sing, I want to sing, I want to sing. And I start, I found a little teacher … Misses Calvey, the famous Emma Calvey, heard me … I start to study with her, and I studied for seven years … with Madame Rosina Storkyo … and with Madame Eric Lia Darkley … and also with Madame Janinarus … and I study also at the scala.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Gina Cigna
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
Madame Junior, were you born in a musical family?
Gina Cigna
Uh not completely. My mother was a very good musician. She plays so well piano fort. My my my father now he was officer and it was very interesting for music. Yes.
Presenter
Your first study in music was the piano, wasn't it?
Gina Cigna
Yes, my piano. I started I had I was five years
Gina Cigna
old and I did not like music.
Gina Cigna
Always I said to my mother, When I will be a young girl and um no, no, I don't find music, I don't like music. Well
Gina Cigna
No comment is better.
Presenter
Who did you study with in Paris?
Gina Cigna
Uh well, I start to study privately and uh I had the suggestion of maestro corto for piano.
Presenter
Alfred Cotto
Gina Cigna
Yes, I forgot to.
Presenter
When did you start singing?
Gina Cigna
Oh, well, this is a long story. You know, I like so much piano for but I was very enthusiastic and the first time during the first war, I was a very young, and I went in um opera to herd
Presenter
They
Gina Cigna
Thies. And I felt so enthusiastic. I said I want to sing, I want to sing, I want to sing. And I start, I found a little teacher, you know, and
Gina Cigna
After a long time I I understood it was not good for me. And um misses Calvey, the famous Emma Calvey, heard me.
Presenter
Yeah.
Gina Cigna
And when she uh looked at me, she said, Oh, you look me when I was young.
Gina Cigna
And I start to study with her, and I studied for seven years, and you know, with Madame Rosina Storkyo.
Gina Cigna
And with Madame Eric Lia Darkley.
Gina Cigna
You know, Madame Mirikliadakli was the first Oscar.
Presenter
Oh yes.
Gina Cigna
Yes. And also with Madame Janinarus, who was in one of the first Norma.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Gina Cigna
And I study also at the scala, you know.
Presenter
You gave an audition to Toscanini at the Scarlet.
Gina Cigna
Yeah, yes, right away. Right away.
Presenter
Yes. And you accompanied yourself at the piano.
Gina Cigna
Yes. Oh, I was very unconsciously, you know.
Presenter
Well, you were given a contract for last year.
Gina Cigna
I gave a contract, yes, and uh my debut was in the Scala.
Presenter
And that was to be your home for many years. Lascar, many years.
Gina Cigna
Well I was for twenty four years, said the scholar.
Presenter
Now Toscanini was a very demanding man in the Opera House, wasn't he?
Presenter
A disciplinarian.
Gina Cigna
Yes, extremely.
Gina Cigna
He was so friendly out of the theatre, but when we were in a stage he was very uh demanding, you say. Yes. You you want the best of the artist, you know.
Presenter
How did he get that best? Was it by fear? What what was his method of getting the best?
Presenter
How did he keep everybody alert, alive?
Gina Cigna
Well, uh when we sang for first time
Gina Cigna
He did not say anything. And uh after he said, Well, now we repeat and he explain clearly what he want. But you know, he says also, for example, he says to me,
Gina Cigna
I I know you are a musician and uh go like you want. If you do something wrong, I stop you. Yes. He was uh well uh good on the first uh role, on the first uh part of the rear thing. But you know, when he had to repeat
Gina Cigna
Uh twice or three times he became a denial.
Presenter
Also almost immediately was singing the heroines of Verdi Belline Donizetti.
Presenter
On on several occasions at Las Gala you were invited to sing on the opening night of the season, a great gala occasion, an honor to open the season.
Gina Cigna
Well
Gina Cigna
Um I opened six times the scala.
Presenter
Yes. And you went with that famous tour of La Scala when the whole company went to Germany.
Gina Cigna
Yes, I'm thirty seven.
Presenter
When Hitler and Mussolini formed an alliance.
Gina Cigna
Bottom of the land.
Presenter
Yeah.
Gina Cigna
I was not very happy.
Presenter
So you sang for you sang for Hitler.
Gina Cigna
You say that.
Gina Cigna
Yes.
Presenter
When did you first appear in London?
Gina Cigna
Well, you ask me something very difficult to answer because, you know, I don't write never my career. I think what's
Presenter
I think
Gina Cigna
Thirty-two or thirty-three.
Presenter
And you were in nearly every season up until the war at Garden Garden.
Presenter
And you sang at the big coronation gala.
Gina Cigna
Ah, this I can't forget because was so splendid in life. You know, I I thought I sang this without uh think about my role. I I sang looking at the public, looking at the people who was in the theatre.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
This was the night of the coronation of George VI. Aida. That was the opera.
Gina Cigna
Yes, Aid.
Gina Cigna
With um Martinell?
Gina Cigna
Um
Presenter
Yeah.
Gina Cigna
Lawrence debate.
Gina Cigna
And, sir.
Gina Cigna
Yeah.
Presenter
and Thomas Beecham.
Presenter
How soon after the war your career as a singer
Presenter
Very unfortunately had to come to a finish.
Gina Cigna
Yeah, yes. This is a bad, bad moment for me. I had to go to sing Tosca at Wicens. Wiccens is a city near Verona. Yeah. And my husband Kars was um not in condition to go. And I take a uh Pullman. And this bus uh go out the road, you know, and
Presenter
And
Presenter
Turns over.
Gina Cigna
Term, yes.
Presenter
Hmm.
Gina Cigna
And I had a very terrible shock.
Presenter
Yes.
Gina Cigna
And uh after two or three days
Gina Cigna
I was in my bed with a heart attack.
Presenter
Mm-hmm. Well this must have been like the end of the world to give up pure singing.
Presenter
How many roles have there been in your operatic repertoire?
Gina Cigna
I have seventy four.
Presenter
Seventy four.
Presenter
So you turn to teaching not only in Italy but in other countries.
Gina Cigna
Well, in every country, really.
Gina Cigna
I was six years in Toronto.
Gina Cigna
to teach. After, well, I come back in Italy and I start uh conservatory, uh master class. I was also ten years
Gina Cigna
and the Academic Jane.
Presenter
Where is that?
Gina Cigna
And Siena. Very important academy. After I was in uh uh Norway also to teach for a master class. I was in Germany. I was in so many
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
Yeah.
Gina Cigna
Countries.
Presenter
Where is your home Nost? In Milan still?
Gina Cigna
My home is in Milan, and also I have uh one home uh near the sea, ne between Genova and Savona.
Presenter asks
Toscanini was a very demanding man in the Opera House, wasn't he? A disciplinarian.
He was so friendly out of the theatre, but when we were in a stage he was very uh demanding … he want the best of the artist.
Presenter asks
How did he keep everybody alert, alive? Was it by fear?
When we sang for first time He did not say anything. And uh after he said, 'Well, now we repeat and he explain clearly what he want.' … He says also, for example, he says to me, 'I know you are a musician and uh go like you want. If you do something wrong, I stop you.' … when he had to repeat twice or three times he became a denial.
Presenter asks
Your career as a singer had to come to a finish after the war — what happened?
I had to go to sing Tosca at Wicens … my husband was not in condition to go. And I take a uh Pullman. And this bus uh go out the road … turns over … and I had a very terrible shock … after two or three days I was in my bed with a heart attack.
“I started I had I was five years old and I did not like music. Always I said to my mother, 'When I will be a young girl and um no, no, I don't find music, I don't like music.'”
“I sang this without uh think about my role. I I sang looking at the public, looking at the people who was in the theatre.”
“This is a bad, bad moment for me.”