Great Historical Singers (Mirella Freni)

Mirella Freni is a retired Italian Operatic Soprano who sang professionally for 50 years.   Like Luciano Pavarotti, Freni was born into a working class family.  Freni's mother worked with Pavarotti's mother.  Freni's talent was immediately apparent at the early age of 10, when she sang the aria "Un bel di vedremo" from "Madama Butterfly" in a radio competition.  Historical tenor Beniamino Gigli heard her performance, and advised her to not sing until she was an appropriate age.     Freni made her operatic debut at the age of 19.  Her debut role was Micaela in Bizet's "Carmen."  Her international debut outside of Italy was at Glynbourne as Adina in "L'elisir d'amore." This is especially significant because the stage director was Franco Zefferelli.  Freni would go on to star in several of Zefferelli's films.  In the early 1960s Freni made her La Scala debut under the baton of Herbert Von Karajan.  Karajan loved Freni's singing, and they had a long working relationship until Freni refused the title role of "Turandot." Freni was nicknamed "the careful one."  Turning down the role of Turandot" was a wise decision, since it could have ruined her voice.  She belonged in the lighter role or Liu, which she performed to great acclaim.  There are many great recordings which demonstrate Freni and Karajan collaborating magnificently artistically.  Especially notable are her portrayals of Butterfly in "Madama Butterfly", and Desdemona in "Otello" which are both spectacular.     The voice Freni had was in one word gorgeous.  She sang from her heart through and through.  Also, based on my long distance encounter of her as a boy, she seemed to have a good heart as well.  I encountered her twenty one years a go when I was in the American Boychoir, and we were recording "Pique Dame" by Tchaikovsky.  She waved to us with a smile and in a friendly fashion.  I remember being blown away by her voice in person.  If only I had gotten to hear it a second time.     Freni has been married twice in her life.  Her second husband was the great bass Nicolai Ghiaurov.  She was married to him from 1978 until his death in 2004.  They sang together multiple times, up until when he died.  They recorded "Simon Boccanegra" under Claudio Abbado. That recording is one of the greatest of any opera recordings.  Freni recorded well into the 1990s with all of the three tenors Carreras, Pavarotti and Domingo.  Currently, Freni continues to teach and give master classes in Italy.