Semiramide

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI

 

 

Performances

• 17 December 1962 - La Scala - Sutherland, Ganzarolli, G. Raimondi/Jaia, Mazzoli,/Ferrin, Bianchi Porro; Santini

Recording

• 17 December 1962 - La Scala - Sutherland, Ganzarolli, G. Raimondi, Mazzoli, Bianchi Porro; Santini

Reviews

• "Naturally an artist like Simionato achieves the impossible as well as the possible. With her outstanding diction , the soft cantabile singing, her incisive accents she succeeds in creating a vivid and human Arsace. And yet in some places...a sound that was more aggressive and resonant at the core would have been more suitable to the exigencies of her situation." Eugenio Gara, L'Europeo, December 30, 1962
• "...an Arsace of the first order...[though] the florid passages were dulled by too much rigidity in her throat, which diminished the size of her voice" La Notte, December 18, 1962

Anecdotes

• This revival of Semiramide was the first time the production it had been seen at La Scala since 1881. Simionato at first refused the role of Arsace as being too demanding, but La Scala were determined to have her so they sent an emissary to New York where she was singing at the MET to convince her to change her mind and assist her preparation. Simionato accepted and in doing so was to make a great friend, Joan Sutherland who was also contracted to the production. It was first of their two times singing opposite one another, not counting a Norma where the young Sutherland sang Clothilde to Simionato's Callas and Callas's Norma.