Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
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.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:07Were 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
0:47Who did you study with in Paris?
I start to study privately and uh I had the suggestion of maestro corto for piano.
Presenter asks
1:00When 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.
Presenter asks
2:41Toscanini 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
3:08How 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
5:27Your 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.”