Mirella Freni

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy seven, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:32

On Adazard Island this week is the singer Mirella Freigne.

Presenter0:36

Miss Franey, could you endure loneliness?

Mirella Freni0:39

No, no, no. If I have uh something uh with me

Presenter0:46

You would have some music with you, would that make record?

Mirella Freni0:47

Yes, yes, only eight. This is the problem, only eight.

Presenter0:52

How did you set about choosing them?

Mirella Freni0:55

I I choose this uh record.

Mirella Freni0:59

Because everyone remembers me something, you know, and for this reason I choose to say it.

Presenter1:05

What's the first one you have there?

Mirella Freni1:07

The first one is uh uh the seventh symphony of Beethoven, because uh the first time I I was in the concert I heard uh this symphony. Uh I was really crazy about I w it was very young.

Presenter1:24

Your first musical memory rhyme

Presenter2:15

Part of the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony,

Presenter2:19

Attioro Toscanini with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter2:22

Now, you were born in the town of Modena in northern Italy. There was another recent musical visitor to our desert island who was born in the same town.

Mirella Freni2:31

Yes, I am serious Luciano Pavarato.

Presenter2:34

We knew each other as children, didn't you?

Mirella Freni2:37

Oh yes, we grew up together. Uh we are uh brother in milk. Is this the right expression?

Presenter2:43

You mean you shared the same wetness?

Mirella Freni2:46

Yes, we take the the same milk from the a woman in manufactory tabax.

Presenter2:54

Tobacco factory.

Mirella Freni2:55

Tobacco Factory

Mirella Freni2:57

My mother and the parotis mothers, they work together in the manufactory like Armen. And and they are are really, really, really friends. And uh for this reason they put us in in one

Speaker 43:05

And and

Mirella Freni3:15

like kindergarten but uh you know, and th there there was this uh woman uh she gave us uh the milk. Sometimes not always.

Speaker 33:17

Yeah.

Speaker 33:22

As he gave

Speaker 33:25

Uh

Speaker 33:26

Ta-da!

Mirella Freni3:27

And uh sometimes I joke with Luciano, I said, Luciano, you drink too much milk, you you have nothing because

Presenter3:36

Well, it shows, doesn't it?

Mirella Freni3:37

Listen

Mirella Freni3:38

You can see.

Presenter3:39

Yes.

Mirella Freni3:39

And uh and uh we are very, very friends uh like like two brothers.

Presenter3:44

We worked together quite frequently.

Mirella Freni3:46

Some yes, we we we have worked really, really often and uh we have done many records together and we we have uh in scheduled to do many others.

Presenter4:00

Was there a lot of music in your family when you were young?

Mirella Freni4:04

Yes, everybody la loved music, and two brothers of my mother one was a baritone, the other a tenor, and always they take m me into the opera, in the concerts, you know, and I grew up always with music.

Presenter4:23

You started taking singing lessons when you were very young.

Mirella Freni4:26

Yes, I start with my uncle.

Presenter4:28

Hmm?

Mirella Freni4:29

And uh you teach me many, many things and l later

Mirella Freni4:34

I met uh uh Benjamin Ogili.

Presenter4:37

Yes.

Mirella Freni4:37

Uh when I was uh ten years old.

Presenter4:41

She said some very nice things about you, I believe.

Mirella Freni4:43

Yes, yes. I have sung for him Umbel divedremo from Butterfly, and he told me you are so young, you must wait because uh sometimes you know the voice change and uh I wait until sixteen years old and I start to learn it really and and now I'm here.

Presenter5:05

Yes. Where did you make your debut?

Mirella Freni5:08

Imodena

Mirella Freni5:09

In nineteen fifty five with Michaela in Carmen.

Presenter5:14

Were you very nervous?

Mirella Freni5:15

No, not at all. Really I I wait uh the moment to to go on the stage for to sing and uh I had so many friends on gallery, you know, all the parents, all the friends, and um they sent me many flowers. I was really excited and uh and uh

Mirella Freni5:36

I love it to sing.

Mirella Freni5:38

Now I must say that I am little afraid more than than than when I have done my mighty boot.

Presenter5:44

Let's have your second record. What have you chosen next?

Mirella Freni5:47

The second

Mirella Freni5:48

I liked her um colours. Colas in Anna Bolena from Donizetti. Why did you the last uh the last uh scene.

Presenter5:51

Talas

Presenter5:54

Why are you class?

Mirella Freni5:57

I choose because I am a really admirer of Maria Carlos, because for me she assigned a very, very important thing in in the in the opera.

Mirella Freni6:10

I don't want to choose uh Norma Toska, everybody knows, but uh Bolina for me is something special. I like it.

Speaker 46:56

There is honesty of God.

Speaker 47:13

Uh

Presenter7:21

Maria Callas singing an aria from Donizetti's Anna Bolena. Now almost immediately after your debut you decided to take two or three years off.

Mirella Freni7:32

Yes, be because uh I I got married and uh I have had a daughter. Uh I was really so young and uh slim, too slim to be a opera singer.

Mirella Freni7:46

And uh I I decide with my husband to to to wait a little for to grow up.

Presenter7:52

Yes. You married a musician, of course.

Mirella Freni7:54

Yes, my husband is a um chef of the chorus.

Presenter7:58

The chorus master.

Mirella Freni7:59

Master, yes, in Bologna, in the Teatro Communal de Bologna is teach the voice in the conservatory of Bologna.

Presenter8:00

So

Presenter8:06

And he coaches you a lot, doesn't he?

Mirella Freni8:08

Oh yes, it is my best teacher.

Presenter8:12

And your daughter's name is Michaela.

Mirella Freni8:14

Michaela, yes, because uh Michaela was my first role and for this reason I I choose uh record of the Beatles.

Mirella Freni8:25

Michelle, because in this island I want to have something

Mirella Freni8:30

If not not possible to have my daughter, I hear the Beatles, Michele, Michele, and I think about her.

Speaker 48:39

Michelle, my bell, someday motivated, l'É bien en sommes, l'ais bien en somme.

Speaker 48:50

I love you, I love you, I love you

Speaker 48:55

That's all I want to say

Speaker 48:59

Until I find a way

Presenter9:02

The Beatles. When you started your career again, you started rather cautiously by doing some more study.

Mirella Freni9:08

Yes, I start to study art and I I I have done

Mirella Freni9:14

Margarita in Faust.

Presenter9:16

You had successes almost immediately in Italian opera houses.

Presenter9:22

Where did you first go when you sang abroad?

Mirella Freni9:25

Uh the first time I was in Gleimborn in oh, I now I don't remember the year, but was in Gleimborn with uh Derlina, I have sang Derlina in Don Giovanni.

Presenter9:31

Hmm.

Mirella Freni9:36

And later was in Covent Garden for the new production of Falstaff with the Giulini conductor and Zeffirelli production in Evans was Gerind Evans. Sir Geraint Evans.

Presenter9:50

Yeah.

Presenter9:52

Sir Garrett and you sang the Netter.

Mirella Freni9:55

Yes, uh it it was uh very exciting for me because uh they called me at uh um at the last moment only one week before.

Presenter10:06

That didn't give you much time.

Mirella Freni10:07

Yes, I don't know what happened. Perhaps the other Nanetta was sick and and they called me. I never sang before this role and I know only the area, you understand? In in two days I learned it with my husband and I remember when I leave from the airport, I start to cry with my husband. I said, I am not sure, I know very well the role, I don't want to leave and my husband said, No, you must go and I start uh in Covingan in this way. It was a very nice uh evening, I remember.

Presenter10:13

Hmm.

Presenter10:20

A stein a

Presenter10:41

I think

Presenter10:44

And you've been coming back, Ellicent.

Mirella Freni10:46

Oh, many, many times.

Presenter10:49

You've worked a great deal with Carrion, Maestro Carrion, haven't you?

Mirella Freni10:53

Yes, it was a very very great uh meeting with uh with Maestro von Karen. The first time was in sixty three.

Presenter10:53

Through the years.

Mirella Freni11:02

in La Scala for La Boem.

Presenter11:06

You sang Des Demina for him at Salzburg, and that was a part you were rather nervous of.

Mirella Freni11:12

Yes, I was a little nervous uh because uh was the first time I sing uh very heavy, every role, bef b because before I've sung uh Mozart, Mimi, Faust in Margarita is heavy too, but not like uh Verdi. And uh I was nervous, but uh everything goes well. It went very well. It has gone well, yes.

Presenter11:35

It went very well.

Presenter11:38

There was one occasion, one part, that didn't go so well to start with. It's one of your big successes now, but for the first time you sang Violetta and La Traviata. It didn't go very well.

Mirella Freni11:47

Yes, yes. In sixty four was not not really, really, really, really good. I fight with the audience in the night, but uh there was many things prepared, you know. Sometimes this uh happened in in Italy.

Presenter12:01

Where was it?

Presenter12:04

La Scarlo, wasn't it?

Mirella Freni12:05

Yes, sometimes happened, but

Mirella Freni12:08

Now I think this was a very

Mirella Freni12:14

Good things because I come out more stronger after this experience.

Presenter12:19

You went and sang it almost immediately afterwards, at Cotton Garden?

Mirella Freni12:22

Yes, I I thank the Covent Garden because uh they calls me, they rings me in Italy, they say, Mirella, we want you come here for the new production of La Traviata in sixty seven with Giulinia and Visconti.

Mirella Freni12:38

At the first moment I was really worried because I said just a moment, I want to think about and after fifteen, twenty days I said, okay, and it was very, very good year, a very great success.

Presenter12:54

Fine. Another record. What next?

Mirella Freni12:57

Now I choose uh Boris Kadunov from Osovsky, uh conductor by Karayan, and Nikolai Garov is Paris.

Presenter13:08

Which part of it would you like to hear?

Mirella Freni13:11

The the hand, the that's

Presenter13:14

The death of bodies

Speaker 413:38

You're son Christian.

Speaker 413:43

All the snow.

Speaker 413:54

All right.

Speaker 413:55

Optarivash.

Speaker 414:00

Sorry.

Speaker 414:09

Yeah.

Presenter14:16

Nikolai Gyarov as boris in a production conducted by Karayan.

Presenter14:21

You made some very successful opera films with Carriane.

Mirella Freni14:26

Yes, I I think so. I I don't have seen all the movies, but uh the the critics uh was

Mirella Freni14:36

Uh

Presenter14:36

Have you ever counted up how many rolls you have in your repertoire?

Mirella Freni14:40

Now I think forty five, forty eight, I don't know.

Presenter14:44

That's quite a lot.

Mirella Freni14:44

Yes, it's enough.

Presenter14:46

You've always restricted yourself to the Italian and French repertoire. You've never sung in German.

Mirella Freni14:52

No, in the opera, no, never. But I've sung uh some uh liddle.

Presenter14:57

Of course.

Presenter14:59

What have we got next?

Mirella Freni15:00

Strauss, Strauss, I want Strauss, yes. Uh the last songs.

Presenter15:01

Yeah.

Presenter15:06

Before last time.

Mirella Freni15:06

Three or four last songs, uh um with Svartkov, Elizabeth Svartkov. And I I choose the last one.

Speaker 415:18

There is a rational

Speaker 415:39

Until

Presenter16:14

Elizabeth Schwartzkopf singing in Arbenthrot the last of Richard Strauss's four last songs. Now you've been singing in London at Covent Garden a gorgeous Marguerite in Faust. Where do you go now?

Mirella Freni16:27

Now I I go in Vienna and I will sing Stads Opera with uh Karian Labohem.

Presenter16:33

How far ahead do you book your work?

Mirella Freni16:37

Until eighty one

Presenter16:38

You are already booked up for nineteen eighty-one.

Mirella Freni16:39

Yeah.

Mirella Freni16:42

It's incredible. I'm afraid because sometimes I think

Presenter16:42

Yeah.

Mirella Freni16:46

Mirela, I don't know if you still in good voice in in eighty one. And my daughter, mamma, you can cancel. Don't worry about this.

Presenter16:56

Pretty powerful.

Presenter16:57

Is your home still in Modena?

Mirella Freni16:59

Yes.

Mirella Freni17:00

I don't want to to go go away because uh it's a small town.

Mirella Freni17:05

But uh very warm, the the people very sympathetic. I like to stay there.

Presenter17:11

What is your daughter doing?

Mirella Freni17:13

My daughter she studied their languages, English and German.

Presenter17:19

Mm-hmm.

Mirella Freni17:19

She's better than me.

Presenter17:21

Your English is wonderful.

Mirella Freni17:22

No, no, no, no, I'm sorry for this.

Presenter17:25

Record number six now.

Mirella Freni17:26

Number six Tchaikovsky, piano concerto with Karian and Weissmber.

Presenter17:34

Why do you choose this?

Mirella Freni17:36

I chose this because I I was in this concert with Weissenberger Karian in in Paris. It was a very great evening.

Mirella Freni17:47

And in this island I must stay with the memory, I am sure, to to to realize uh

Mirella Freni17:53

Uh to dream now a little bit.

Presenter19:00

The opening of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, Number One, Alexis Weisenberg, with The Orchestra Paris, directed by Herbert von Carriag.

Presenter19:09

Are you a domestic person? Do you like cooking and looking after the house?

Mirella Freni19:12

Yes, yes, yes. I like to really too much. When I am at home I I enjoy myself to do this. And with my daughter too, she she is a very good uh cook.

Presenter19:23

Could you look after yourself on a desert island?

Mirella Freni19:27

I am sure, I am sure.

Presenter19:28

Build somewhere to live?

Mirella Freni19:31

I never done this, but if it's necessary I can I can try.

Presenter19:36

Would you try to escape?

Mirella Freni19:37

No.

Presenter19:38

No.

Mirella Freni19:38

No, I can stay there, but later I can try.

Presenter19:42

Where have we got to? Number seven.

Mirella Freni19:44

Seven?

Mirella Freni19:45

I I want to choose the Intelimani, this art song from Chile, because my daughter she discovered this record and uh I remember one day she running uh around me all because uh she once I heard this Mamma, listen, listen, listen, this is interesting, this is new, uh I want to try to but something happened or telephones or somebody comes and this I choose for my daughter.

Presenter19:48

Is R C

Presenter21:15

A Chilean group called Inti Telemanni

Presenter21:18

and the number is Volveir a los.

Presenter21:21

And now we come to your last record.

Mirella Freni21:23

Yes, the last one.

Mirella Freni21:25

Uh

Mirella Freni21:26

I'm sorry, but I must choose something for me, butterfly.

Presenter21:30

Your own recording.

Mirella Freni21:31

Yes, only one, only one. I don't like too much to hear my m my records in this time.

Presenter21:33

Only one.

Mirella Freni21:39

Because always I find it something is not good. But in this case I'm alone, perhaps I start to to love Spranny.

Speaker 422:01

God bless young moths.

Presenter22:44

Madam Butterfly. You've never sung that role on stage, have you?

Mirella Freni22:48

No, never. And this record is my first time I have sung butterfly. And uh when I arrived to record this with Carion, it start really from the second that with Umbel Dived Remo and and for this reason I have so many, many memories with me in this island.

Presenter23:07

De Sila.

Presenter23:08

Of course, you played in the film, which was shown on television not long ago.

Mirella Freni23:10

Yeah.

Presenter23:13

If you could take just one of your eight disks to the file, which would it be?

Mirella Freni23:16

Which would it be? This is very difficult. Let me see. I think Strauss. It's Svarskov.

Presenter23:25

The four last songs.

Mirella Freni23:25

First songs.

Presenter23:27

And one luxury to take with you?

Mirella Freni23:29

A bicycle or something for two paintings.

Presenter23:33

Bicycle Soft sound. I don't think it would be much good.

Mirella Freni23:36

No, no.

Presenter23:38

Pending. You you enjoy painting?

Mirella Freni23:40

Yes, I like.

Presenter23:42

All right, a complete equipment. And one book, and we're putting aside the Bible and Shakespeare and big encyclopedias.

Mirella Freni23:47

Uh Gone with the Wind is very very big long I have I have uh time to to read.

Presenter23:53

But it be

Presenter23:58

In Italian or

Presenter24:01

And thank you, Mirella Franey, for letting us hear your desert island is.

Mirella Freni24:05

Thank you to you. It was a very great pleasure. Goodbye, everyone. Bye-bye.

Presenter24:08

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 324:18

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.