TRIBUTES

 

There haven been many great singers, but few of them will leave a permanent place for themselves in the history of opera. Of the group who came after me, I would put Simionato on the top of the list, not Callas. They talk about Callas singing everything; yes, but how? With three voices, and only the coloratura was, for a few years, impressive. But Simionato sang everything and with only one wonderful voice. She became a luminous star, not through publicity, but through exceptional merit.

Gilda della Rizza (Soprano, entrusted by Puccini to sing the first  La Rondine, and the European premiers of Sour Angelica and Gianni Schicci).

 

 

Tributes from Singers/Conductors  

 

• Licia Albanese (Soprano) - It is with great admiration that I remember the career of Giulietta Simionato. Together we turned in many performances...The dramatic agility of her voice allowed her to obtain one success after another and gave her a position of honour in the international opera world. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Rosanna Carteri (Soprano) - She (Simionato) was a genius - everything she touched became pure gold - and I have never encountered anyone who had a finer sense of discipline and responsibility Such was the mastery of this mezzo over her fabulous instrument that she could give an astonishing performance even when suffering from a bad cold. [Rasponi, The Last Prima Donnas] 
• Anita Cerquetti (Soprano) - Each one of the operas I performed with her was a beautiful and significant experience, almost entirely devoid of the jitters and anxieties that are a reoccurring problem for an artist. Her presence as an artist made the atmosphere serene because she succeeded in infusing the performance with the necessary confidence. She was there for me in private moments - for example, with a telegram on the occasion of my daughter's birth. From a distance of twenty years I want to express my gratitude once again. I'm glad for this opportunity to show my admiration and affection for her. Perhaps I haven't said everything that she deserves to have said about her but my words are sincere, heartfelt and full of affection. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Boris Christoff (Bass) - A serious artist, well prepared...In her I always found a colleague with who one was inspired to make good music. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Franco Corelli (tenor) - What a formidable singer, and what a personality! It was such a blend that one could not be separated from the other...She was complete: her persuasive and forceful singing was reinforced by an overwhealming acting sense, enhanced by a glamorous physique. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Regine Crespin (soprano) - [She] conducted her career in an exemplary fashion, knowing how to choose repertory. She sang the right operas at the right time with a particularly intelligent technique, with patience, with wisdom.
• Giuseppe Di Stefano (tenor) - Giulietta suffered the torments of hell on that occasion [the tour of Mexico] because as a conscientious and well-prepared an artist she found herself singing with the undersigned, who of the four operas was "improvising" in three of them. "You are impossible", Giulietta kept saying during the performances. "It is not possible to sing with someone who changes the text constantly and makes up the notes, and the music as well!" She was right of course and Donizetti, Rossini and Massenet were suffering right along with her. During intermission she would lock herself in her dressing room crying and laughing, breaking everything she could get her hands on...The audience however were delirious and all the performances were recorded live...Every opera lover in the world has them. Dear colleague, it is very true that in spite of the terrible moments during those unforgettable evenings we became part of the history of one of the most prestigious Latin American opera theatres, and the audience there have not forgotten us: you with your mastery and knowledge and me improvising, but always united in our way of singing, full of passion and sweetness, which after all is said and done, is what pleases audiences everywhere. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Agostino Ferrin (Bass) - We were singing at the Kremlin auditorium in front of an audience of six thousand people - Madame Simionato, myself and other famous colleagues...It was my turn to sing...[after the aria] the audience did not stop applauding and asking for one for encore, I was embarrassed by such enthusiasm and wanted to leave the stage, also knowing that Giulietta Simionato was waiting to sing after me and bring the evening to a close. But Madame Simionato, with words I will never forget, said to me, "Dear Ferrin, where are you going? In the land of basses this is a double success. This is your evening too. Go and sing all you want to, I will wait"...So I sang...in front of La Simionato who was applauding me in her enthusiasm. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Augusta Oltrabella (Soprano) - I sang the Marschallin in Trieste to Simionato's first Octavian, and I shall always recall my astonishment when she told me that she had been hanging around for almost fifteen years doing secondary roles. For this was one of her first big assignments, and the voice, personality, and musicianship of this mezzo were so extraordinary that I simply could not understand the blindness of the people in the metier. Thank goodness, she then came forward in the most spectacular manner, and deservedly so. [Rasponi, The Last Prima Donnas] 
• Gianandrea Gavazzeni (Conductor) - Her main characteristic has been the ability to sing Azucena, Amneris and Eboli and Adagisa with an incredible interpretive outline and to be during the same years as Mozart...Thomas...Mascagni....Handel...being able always to shift from one style to another staying in tune with the various musical languages, without giving up her individuality. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Leyla Gencer (Soprano) - The Aida in Verona...Her imperturbable calm before the performance...I can still see her, seraphic in her dressing room...while all around her the agitation was intensifying. All of a sudden strange vocalises, muttered with the mouth closed, were proceeding from her dressing room. It was the way she tested her voice...she went over a couple of lines and went to sing. And she sang beautifully. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Herbert von Karajan (Conductor) - Her great nature and her deep expressivity have caused us to feel the greatest respect and admiration for this extraordinary artist, who lives only for art, which she shares with her pupils, who will be able to bear witness to how much can be achieved through devotion and sacrifice. She will always be an example to us. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Luisa Maragliano (Soprano) - The greatest gift of Giulietta Simionato - the great artist, great singer, great lady - after the aforesaid qualities - was to shine by her modesty, and by her knowledge of how to live by living. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Anna Moffo (Soprano)...on being asked to list her favorite singers...[Giulietta] Simionato. She was perfect. She was a great artist, a great example for young singers. She would even take something like Maddalena [in Rigoletto] and make it a leading role. She often had the dressing room next to mine, and she didn't vocalize! Just a few [hums]. She knew where she wanted to go, and she went there. [Siff, 'GreatVoices', OperaNews]
• Dame Joan Sutherland (Soprano) - I had heard Giulietta singing at Covent Garden and in Verona at the Arena and listened to her recordings, but I was not prepared for the splendid voice I heard during the performances (which they appeared in together) of Semiramide and Ugonotti. It was a great joy to hear this elegant singer and I remember her with great affection. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Renata Tebaldi (Soprano) - I never saw her worried. She was always playful. She never did vocalises before a performance, but rather seemed to warm up by imitating a trumpet. She traveled constantly. I envied her because I could never sleep on a plane; she, on the other hand, could go to her spot, wherever it may be and fall asleep easily. I also remember that after performances she drank lots of water, ate an apple and went on her way...[Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]

Tributes from Vocal Experts/Critics

• John Ardoin (musicologist) - Just writing or speaking her name still causes a rush of excitement within me. She was, in our time, without parallel - a true Verdian mezzo-soprano capable of dramatic soprano flights...But Simionato was more than just sound. She was drama itself. She was like a soldier, and words were the armaments with which she did battle. Through words and by virtue of her raging sound, she was capable of conveying in full measure the emotions of a text, the intricacies of a feeling...She had a command of coloratura to put most sopranos to shame (and how many must have also envied her brilliant, easy top voice with its solid high C). By simply opening a fan and appearing across the top of it, she conveyed more of the character and mischievousness of Rosina than a legion of singers before and since had been able to do in an entire evening if gesturing and posing...There are some singers who should possess the gift of eternal youth, for they have so much to give and so much to teach us all. Giulietta Simionato was one such singer. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Giorgio Gualerzi (Music critic and  historian of vocal style) - She had a great career thanks to her technique, but also as she had been "resting" so to speak [for the first half of her career]...She took up the great Verdi roles when she was almost 40 and very carefully. The role she sang most was Amneris, whose high tessitura particularly suited her, because Giulietta in reality is a 'falcon'. This is demonstrated by the fact that in 1962, when she was 52, she had the courage to sing the role of Valentina in The Huguenots, a role that reaches as high as a C...I think she averaged 80 to 100 performances a year, from the mid 50s until the beginning of the 60s...Simionato considers herself a great Rossini singer. There can be no doubt that she has made great progress in respect to what went before, and no doubt she will have her place in history. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Paolo Padoan (Musicologist) She was able to master roles, which were chosen with her eyes open so that she was always able to invest them with the necessary cunning, or sensitivity, or rigor, or agility or elegance. Many characterisations benefited from her art and her sunny voice by means of a sort of cultural operation by which she knew how to replace them with them in the proper social context, removing them from the oblivion to which they had been consigned. With characters that had been widely known and loved by a mass public, and had been for a long time ensnared in a degrading routine, she knew how to give them back their dignity. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]

Tributes from Directors

• Massimo Bogianckino (Former Artistic Director of La Scala and Superintendent of the Paris Opera) - Trying to say something new about Giulietta's art is a very difficult task since she has interpreted all the great mezzo-soprano roles of the Italian and French repertory...and sang them all sublimely, in ways that won't be surpassed...We can once again stress her extraordinary adaptability, but that is where we become confused, as we can not decide whether we prefer her in the great tragic roles or in the coloratura, belcanto roles. The emotions that we felt were different yet extremely intense. The voice created the character but the character served the voice in a very rare exchange of functions that distinguishes the great interpreter. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Nicola Benois (Set and costume designer) - I remember it being a great joy, always, to see her wear the costumes that I had created, because there were few artists that could really "embody" a character the way the author had wanted, making it real, convincing, and above all bringing it to life as Simionato did with her temperament, which could really ignite the enthusiasm of the audience...Great artist that she was, Simionato knew how to make the greatest use of the costume she was wearing with exquisite self-assurance and absolute self-control. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Franco Zeffirrelli (Director) - It was Giulietta Simionato who showed me the greatest kindness (on his first La Scala production of Rossini's L'Italiana)...Both Tebaldi and Callas adored Simionato who was then as she is today, one of the sweetest people ever to have trod an opera stage. More important was the part she played in convincing me I had the ability to succeed. As a result of the success this far of the "Rossini Revival", Ghiringhelli (La Scala's superintendent) decided to mount Cenerentola with the same cast...the audience...could not stop applauding Giulietta on opening night. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]

 

Personal Tributes

• Adele Bergonzi  (Wife of tenor Carlo Bergonzi and friend of Simionato) - Giulietta Simionato was always a good colleague to my husband. She always considered the other cast members important. For my part I always liked her and she was very pleasant to me. We became friends in spite of differences in age and standing. She was famous and I was a simple tenors wife, always ready to fulfill my duties...In New York, during the long period when both Carlo and Giulietta were performing at the Met, she was our guest and, as a very sensitive woman, she would be quite moved when I read my children's letters from Italy. During our meetings sometimes we reminisced and commented on the expressions we used to use many years ago, and my expressions in dialect. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Nini Castiglioni (Simionato's secretary, Press Agent, Lady's companion for 15 years) - Fifteen years of a great career which was perhaps never equalled in operatic history: Fifteen years in which Simionato only missed two performances...Her singing engagements were her first priority. She had a spartan lifestyle. She never accepted any social engagements after the performance. She would go back to her home or to her hotel and her evening meal was a packet of cookies and an apple....She managed her voice in a formidable way. I remember that once I had arranged a concert in Venice...I received a phone call announcing Simionato had no voice!...Giulietta arrived and in fact she had no voice! That is, she didn't have any speaking voice. But she sang and her voice was there! I will never know where it came from but she sang perfectly well and the concert was a great success...She never created an problems for artistic management. She was the first in her dressing room...She was also very proud. When she was a comprimario at La Scala and being paid by the week, often at the end of the week she had to decide whether to take the bus or buy a sandwich, but she never asked for an advance. She preferred to go without dinner. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Fedora Del Monaco (Wife of Mario Del Monaco) - Giulietta adored Mario and would often send him humerus telegrams when she knew he was going to sing a difficult role, either at La Scala or the MET. "Take heart Mario, you are the only one."...My husband and I had greatly admired Giulietta, who was the truly the great singer and leading mezzo-soprano of the La Scala Golden Age...More I can't say. Only that Giulietta attends every event and commemoration in remembrance of Mario. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Tilde Gobbi (Wife of Tito Gobbi) - Tito called her Mulieta...I do not want to talk about the sad things we shared like sisters. We both had the comfort of a sincere friendship, which is so rare in the competitive world of the performing arts. Now that I am alone and destiny has taken away my beloved companion, Mulieta writes and telephones me with great tenderness. Thank you Mulieta. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]
• Daniele Rubboli (writer) - Giulietta Simionato is in fact the ultimate rose of post-war Italian female singers, and of the world. She carries herself with the same nobility we see in the flower, there also may be thorns, a certain elegant distance brought about by her aristocratic vision and intellectualism born of many years experience singing. With humility, persistence and self-determination, after severe studies to perfect her vocal instrument, Simionato bought her sovereign intelligence onto the scene, where it blossomed like a flower after long and careful cultivation. I have heard of many roses blooming in the theatre since, and have gone to see them. From a distance they appear to be beautiful, full and fragrant. But as I reach out to pick them my hand is disappointed to find paper flowers pierced by a stem with an iron core. [Hanine Roussel, Giulietta Simionato: How Simionato became Queen]

 

 

Special section of tributes given on Simionato's retirement...