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Italian opera star Licia Albanese dies at age 105

Licia Albanese, an Italian-American soprano who for more than a quarter century starred at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, has died at age 105, her family said on Monday.

Published: 19 August 2014 08:57 CEST
Italian opera star Licia Albanese dies at age 105
Licia Albanese is known most notably for her role as Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly. Photo: NewYork1956/Wikipedia

The globally revered Puccini specialist, known most notably for her role as Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, sang 427 times in her 26 years at the Met, performing in 16 operas, and playing 17 characters. Her career with the famed opera company spanned from 1940 to 1966.

She played the lead role of Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata a total of 87 times, setting a record she still holds.

Born in 1909 in Italy, Albanese was known not only for her vocal talents but also the emotional intensity she brought to her roles.

Albanese began her career in the 1930s in Italy, France and England, before immigrating to the United States, where she sang for the first time at the Met in February 1940 in the role of Cio-Cio-San. She also performed for the San Francisco Opera at the time.   

Albanese quickly rose to international stardom, performing with the biggest opera singers of her generation including Jan Peerce and Ezio Pinza.

In 1974 she founded the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation to help young singers, and she was awarded the National Medal of Honor for the Arts in 1995 by then US president Bill Clinton.

Albanese was married to investment banker Joseph Gimma. She passed away at her home in Manhattan on Friday.

Listen to Albanese singing in the 1950s:

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OPERA

A Masked Ball: Madrid opera forced to cancel show after protest over social distancing

Spain's main opera house, the Teatro Real in Madrid, defended itself Monday after it had to cancel a performance when a small group of spectators loudly protested against being seated too close to each other amid a spike in Covid-19 infections.

Published: 22 September 2020 11:23 CEST
A Masked Ball: Madrid opera forced to cancel show after protest over social distancing
View of the Teatro Real in Madrid. Photo: Claudia Schillinger/ Flickr

The performance of Giuseppe Verdi's “A Masked Ball” on Sunday night was called off after a “minority” of spectators repeatedly jeered and clapped despite being offered the chance to be relocated or get a refund for the value of their tickets, the theatre said in a statement.

Videos shared on social media by several spectators who were at the performance showed full rows in the upper sections where seats are cheaper, while in the pricier floor section many empty seats could be seen.

Clapping and calls of “suspension!” could be heard even after the actors tried to begin their performance.

The Teatro Real had “respected the health norms” put in place by the regional government of Madrid to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and “even reinforced them”, the chairman of the body which manages the theatre, Gregorio Marañon, told a news conference on Monday.

Attendance at the performance had been reduced to just 51.5 percent of the total, well below the  limit of 75 percent set by the regional government, he added.

The regional government does not require there to be an empty seat between spectators, but it does require there to be a distance of 1.5 metres (five feet) between people, or if this is not possible, that they wear face masks, which is mandatory at the theatre, Marañon said.

The Teatro Real, which celebrated its bicentenary in 2018, is studying “what measures we can take for those spectators who… clearly felt in an uncomfortable situation,” he added.

The incident comes as the regional government of Madrid has imposed a partial lockdown in several densely-populated, low income areas mainly in the south of the Spanish capital where virus infections are surging, sparking a debate about inequality and triggering protests in these neighbourhoods over the weekend before the new measures took effect on Monday.

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