49 Facts About Renata Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera.

Renata Tebaldi's parents separated before her birth and Tebaldi grew up with her mother in her maternal grandparents' home in Langhirano.

Stricken with polio at the age of three, Renata Tebaldi became interested in music and sang with the church choir in Langhirano.

Renata Tebaldi's mother sent her, at age 13, for piano lessons with Giuseppina Passani in Parma, who took the initiative that Tebaldi study voice with Italo Brancucci at the Parma Conservatory.

Renata Tebaldi was admitted to the conservatory at 17, where she studied with Brancucci and Ettore Campogalliani.

Renata Tebaldi later transferred to Liceo musicale Rossini in Pesaro, taking lessons with Carmen Melis, and on her suggestion with Giuseppe Pais.

Renata Tebaldi then studied with Beverley Peck Johnson in New York City.

Renata Tebaldi made her stage debut as Elena in Boito's Mefistofele in Rovigo in 1944.

Wartime conditions made for a difficult trip, with Renata Tebaldi partly travelling by horse cart to Rovigo, and her return trip coming under machine-gun fire.

Renata Tebaldi caused a stir when in 1946 she made her debut as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello alongside Francesco Merli as the title role in Trieste.

Renata Tebaldi made her La Scala debut that year at the concert marking the reopening of the theatre after World War II.

Renata Tebaldi sang the "Prayer" from Rossini's biblical opera, Mose in Egitto, and the soprano part in Verdi's Te Deum.

Renata Tebaldi was given the roles of Margherita and Elena in Mefistofele and Elsa in Lohengrin in 1946.

Renata Tebaldi believed the role was reserved for a dramatic soprano, but Toscanini convinced her otherwise, and she debuted in the role at La Scala in 1950 with Mario del Monaco and Fedora Barbieri, conducted by Antonino Votto.

Renata Tebaldi provided Sophia Loren's singing in the film version of Aida.

Renata Tebaldi went on a concert tour with the La Scala ensemble in 1950, first to the Edinburgh Festival and then to London, where she made her debut as Desdemona in two performances of Otello at the Royal Opera House and in the Verdi Requiem, both conducted by Victor de Sabata.

Renata Tebaldi made her American debut in 1950 as Aida at the San Francisco Opera; her Metropolitan Opera debut took place on 31 January 1955, as Desdemona opposite Mario Del Monaco's Otello.

One of the public's favourite Renata Tebaldi roles was Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West of which she sang only five performances in February and March 1970.

Renata Tebaldi, who had a lifelong fear of horses, refused to go near the animal until she was sure he was safe.

Renata Tebaldi sang more at the Met and far less elsewhere.

Renata Tebaldi developed a special rapport with the Met audiences and became known as "Miss Sold Out", as her name on the marquee was considered a performance that could hardly be matched.

Renata Tebaldi sang there some 270 times in La boheme, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, La fanciulla del West, Otello, La forza del destino, Simon Boccanegra, Falstaff, Andrea Chenier, Adriana Lecouvreur, La Gioconda, and as Violetta in a production of La Traviata created specially for her.

Renata Tebaldi was the Leonora in La forza del destino on the night in 1960 when Leonard Warren suddenly died mid-performance; and she was Adriana Lecouvreur on the night Placido Domingo made his Met debut in 1968.

Renata Tebaldi made her last appearance there on 8 January 1973 as Desdemona in Otello; it was the role in which she made her Met debut 18 years earlier, and which had become one of her signature roles.

Renata Tebaldi did not become a classically temperamental diva, but trusted her artistic instincts.

Renata Tebaldi was trained by Carmen Melis, a verismo specialist, and she was rooted in the early 20th-century Italian school of singing just as firmly as Callas was rooted in 19th-century bel canto.

Callas was a dramatic soprano, whereas Renata Tebaldi considered herself essentially a lyric soprano.

Callas and Renata Tebaldi generally sang a different repertoire: in the early years of her career, Callas concentrated on the heavy dramatic soprano roles and later in her career on the bel canto repertoire, whereas Renata Tebaldi concentrated on late Verdi and verismo roles.

In 1978, Renata Tebaldi spoke warmly of her late colleague and summarized this rivalry:.

Renata Tebaldi's voice was reputed to be one of the most beautiful of the day, with rich, perfectly produced tones.

British musicologist Alan Blyth posited that in posterity, Renata Tebaldi holds a position of being one of the last and best spinto sopranos of the last 50 years, due to Renata Tebaldi's successors in the fach not having the right vocal equipment for her parts.

Renata Tebaldi's voice added a frisson of urgency when she sang in an opera house.

Renata Tebaldi withdrew from performances in 1963 to restudy, made in part due to the emotional stress after eighteen years of singing.

Some critics of Renata Tebaldi have commented adversely on her seemingly incomplete technique; sometimes she took on strident, full-voiced top notes when tackling material above the high B-flat, and had occasional lapses in her pitch.

Renata Tebaldi herself mentioned that recording presented challenges for her, as she missed the stimulation of an audience, and her powerful voice would often cause sound engineers to insist that she turn away from the microphone at moments of climactic intensity.

Renata Tebaldi enjoyed a beloved relationship with her mother, who helped nurture her and was devoted to her career and well-being from an early age.

Renata Tebaldi retired from the opera stage in 1973 as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, the same role she debuted there nearly 20 years previously.

In one recital held in Manila with frequent partner Franco Corelli, Renata Tebaldi's voice cracked in a Manon Lescaut aria; she then massaged her throat and genuflected to great applause from the audience.

Renata Tebaldi received six curtain calls and standing ovations from the audience.

Renata Tebaldi then moved out of her New York apartment, her home for many years during her stint at the Met, and returned to Italy, where she gave her final public appearance in a vocal recital in La Scala in May 1976.

Renata Tebaldi spent the majority of her last days in Milan.

Renata Tebaldi died on 19 December 2004 at age 82 at her home in San Marino.

Renata Tebaldi is buried in the Tebaldi family chapel at Mattaleto cemetery in Langhirano.

Renata Tebaldi won the first Grammy Award Best Classical Performance - Vocal Soloist in 1959 for her album Operatic Recital.

Renata Tebaldi became a member of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic as a Grand Officer in 1968 and a Knight Grand Cross in 1992.

Renata Tebaldi was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France.

Proclamation of "Renata Tebaldi day" was made in her honour on 11 December 1995 by Rudy Giuliani, then Mayor of New York City.

On 7 June 2014, the museum dedicated to Renata Tebaldi was inaugurated in the stables of Villa Pallavicino in Busseto.

Renata Tebaldi was awarded a star for recording in 1960 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 6628 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California.