#Petruzzelli Theater | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

opera-ghosts · 5 months

Text

Verdi - Un Ballo in Maschera - Re dell'abisso - Irene Minghini-Cattaneo (1930)

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano Carlo Sabajno, conductor HMV, 1930

Irene Minghini Boschi was born at Lugo, Italy on 12 April, 1892 and was encouraged at the age of fourteen to pursue a musical career. Her studies continued for a number of years but were curtailed by the outbreak of World War I. In 1918 Irene made her debut at Savona in “Il Trovatore” and later in the season she appeared at Brescia in “Isabeau” and at Rome’s Teatro Adriano as the Countess in “Andrea Chenier”. She was dissatisfied with her own abilities and decided to move to Milan, where she was accepted as a student by Ettore Cattaneo, who was not only an eminent musicologist and conductor, but was the senior director of the house of Ricordi.

After a very brief period of study, Cattaneo announced that his protégé was ready, and in March of 1919 Irene debuted at Milan’s Teatro Carcano as Madelon in “Chenier” and a short time later, as Amneris. The Verdi opera was the subject of superb notices and before the year was out, she had also sung the Egyptian princess at Carrara and had appeared at Mestre.

Irene had, from the beginning, dropped her family name and appeared only as Irene Minghini, for reasons never explained. On 22 March, 1920 she married Maestro Cattaneo and immediately assumed his name for professional as well as personal reasons. After a very brief honeymoon, she appeared at Empoli on 6 April as La Cieca and in the summer she appeared at Siena in “Rigoletto” and later in “Aida” with Eva Pacetti. She returned to the Carcano in December for “Il Trovatore” with Ester Mazzoleni, Giovannoni and Francesco Maria Bonini and at year’s end in “Aida” with Oliva Petrella.

January of 1921 afforded her a very important debut, Preziosilla at the Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari and in the spring she appeared in “Il Trovatore” at Ravenna, Cesena and Forli. Milan’s Arena offered a contract for la Cieca and at Macerata she appeared as Amneris. The very prestigious Dal Verme of Milan presented Irene in “Il Trovatore” in October and on 29 December she debuted as la Cieca at Parma’s Teatro Regio with Tina Poli Randaccio, the young mezzo, Giannina Arangi Lombardi, Ismael Voltolini, Giuseppe Noto and Bruno Carmassi. There were ten performances and they served as Irene’s entry into the mainstream of Italian operatic life.

1922 was a very important year in her career, beginning at Spezia in “La Favorita” and continuing at Piacenza as Quickly in “Falstaff” with Mariano Stabile as well as la Cieca with Fidela Campigna, Arangi Lombardi, Francesco Merli and Vincenzo Guiccardi. At Florence, she appeared in “Falstaff”, at Palermo in “Aida” and at the Dal Verme, she again sang in “Il Trovatore” as well as with Alessandro Bonci in “Un Ballo in Maschera”. At Rome’s Teatro Augusteo in December she sang in the Manzoni Requiem with Mazzoleni, Bonci and Nazzareno De Angelis, and her name became headline news at the Italian capital, though she would never be engaged at that city’s premiere opera house. In 1923 Irene returned to Florence for “Falstaff” and sang at Cremona for the first time in “La Gioconda” and “Falstaff”. At Ancona in March she sang in “Falstaff” and in April she sang at the Naples Teatro San Carlo in the Manzoni Requiem. They would turn out to be her only appearances at that august theater. In May Irene returned to Ravenna for “Falstaff” after which she took an eight month sabbatical, reportedly for a pregnancy, though my research has uncovered no definitive information.

On 1 February 1924 Irene returned to the stage with appearances as Amneris at Cremona and a month later she debuted at Genoa’s Carlo Felice as Quickly in a cast that included Linda Cannetti, and Luigi Montesanto. At Vicenza she sang in the Manzoni Requiem with Lucia Crestani, Giuseppi Taccani and De Angelis, conducted by Sergio Failoni, and the engagement as so successful that all the soloists were immediately engaged for performances at Verona during the summer. Two performances were given at the Arena and two were moved to the Teatro Filarmonico when violent thunderstorms threatened Berrettoni conducted and Isora Rinolfi shared soprano honors with Crestani. The year also included performances of “Il Trovatore” at the Dal Verme, at Nice and at Genoa, “Aida” at Trieste’s Teatro Rossetti and the Manzoni Requiem at the Augusteo with Bianca Scacciati, Franco Lo Giudice and Bettoni.

Minghini Cattaneo returned to Genoa for additional performances of “Falstaff” in January 1925 and to the Augusteo for Beethoven’s Symphony #9 at the Augusteo in April. In May, at Pavia, she sang Dalila for the first time and in July she appeared in “La Gioconda” at the Verona Arena. Arangi Lombardi had graduated to the title role and Irene to the role of Laura for the first time. Bergamo heard her as Leonora de Guzman, Reggio Emilia was the scene of her first Adalgisas, partnered by Arangi Lombardi, and at Parma, she sang in “Tristan und Isolde” with Gina de Zorzi, Lavarello and Carlo Tagliabue and in “Norma” with Vera Amerighi Rutili, Renato Zanelli and Umberto De Lelio.

1926 began with performances of “Un Ballo in Maschera” at Parma and continued with “Norma” with Amerighi Rutili at Cremona, “Falstaff” at Modena, “Il Trovatore” at Como, and in March an extended stay at Catania’s Teatro Massimo Bellini. She debuted in “Norma” on 6 March with Amerighi Rutili, Cingolani and Manfrini, and on the 20th, she sang in “Aida” with Arangi Lombardi, Nicola Fusati, Armando Borgioli and Manfrini. At Ravenna, she sang Brangaene to the Isolde of Maria Llacer and Amneris to the Aida of Maria Carena and later in the season, Irene appeared in seven performances of “Il Trovatore” at Verona’s Arena. In the autumn, the Teatro Comunale of Modena offered a gala, extra season revival of “Norma” with Amerighi Rutili and at Bologna, Minghini appeared at Bologna in “Lohengrin” with Giuseppina Cobelli, Beniamino Gigli and Borgioli, in “Il Trovatore” with Arangi Lombardi, Aureliano Pertile and Borgioli and in “Aida” with Stani Zawaska, Merli and Angelo Pilotto. The year ended with eleven performances of “Il Trovatore” at Brescia’s Teatro Grande.

Her first engagement in 1927 was a stellar revival of “Aida” at Turin’s Teatro Regio. Eva Turner and Maria Carena shared the soprano role and Pertile sang Radames under the baton of Gino Marinuzzi. At Nice, Irene appeared in “Il Trovatore” with Llacer, Pedro Mirassou and Apollo Granforte and in “Aida” with Llacer, and Mirassou. In May, she sang in “Il Trovatore” with Arangi Lombardi, Merli and Gaetano Viviani at Florence. and while there, sang in two concert performances of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony. She was now the reigning mezzo at Verona and her season included eleven performances of “Aida” with Arangi Lombardi, Antonio Cortis and Viviani and two performances of the Beethoven Ninth.

The musicologist and commentator, Dr. Garcia Montes, reported of “Aida” in Record Collector: “What a wonderful voice and temperament that woman (Cattaneo) had. I will always remember her duet with Arangi Lombardi in the second act and her scene with Antonio Cortis in the last act. There existed some sort of rivalry or competition between the admirers of Arangi Lombardi and Minghini Cattaneo (both singers were good friends, though) and the storms of applause after each passage sung by the said singers lasted for minutes.”

At Cesena she appeared in the Manzoni Requiem and at Bologna she appeared in six performances of “La Gioconda”, again singing Laura. Those who attended the revival read in the program that Irene Minghini Cattaneo had been engaged to join the Melba-Williamson company on a six month tour to Australia in the spring of 1928, and that she would be joined by Giannina Arangi Lombardi, Toti dal Monte, Francesco Merli, Apollo Granforte and other Italian artists of the first rank in the most ambitious operatic undertaking in that continent’s history. The best laid plans!

Somewhere between Bologna and Australia, the Cattaneos made a very sharp turn. On 3 March 1928 Irene Minghini Cattaneo debuted at La Scala in “Il Trovatore” with Arangi Lombardi, Merli, Galeffi and Baccaloni under Ettore Panizza’s baton. On 16 May, as Arangi and Merli were singing at Melbourne before sold out houses, Cattaneo was engaged in the World Premiere of Pizzetti’s “Fra Gherardo” at La Scala with Florica Cristoforeanu, Trantoul and Baccaloni under Arturo Toscanini’s direction. Irene, at her husband’s urging, had accepted a contract to debut at London’s Covent Garden, and the Australian contract was dismissed. There were very serious and negative implications to this decision, and as we shall later see, though she remained attached to the Milan theater at intervals, her career at Italy’s important venues was pretty much at an end. On 15 June, Irene appeared at Covent Garden for the first time, singing in “Aida” with Dusolina Giannini, Pertile, Borgioli and Manfrini under the leadership of Vincenzo Bellezza. Her reviews were more than respectful. “Amneris was played with much dignity…by Madame Cattaneo” – Daily Telegraph. On the 28th, she sang Marina in a revival of “Boris Guduonov” with Feodor Chaliapin and her reviews were less kind, complaining of a much too broad Italianate approach. “It required Chaliapin to restore balance” – Daily Telegraph. In August Cattaneo appeared at Rimini in “Il Trovatore” with Carena and Giacomo Lauri Volpi and on Christmas Night, she returned to Parma for “La Gioconda” with Arangi Lombardi, Luigi Marini, Borgioli and Contini.

La Scala welcomed Irene for three important revivals in 1929: “Lohengrin” with Rosetta Pampanini, Pertile and Galeffi, “Un Ballo in Maschera” with Scacciati, Carosio, Pertile and Galeffi and “Aida” with Arangi Lombardi, Pertile and Galeffi. Elizabeth Rethberg appeared as “Aida” in several performances. When Toscanini brought the Scala company to Vienna and Berlin later in the spring, Cattaneo was not invited to perform, to the surprise of many. She was a difficult colleague, and the resentments over her failure to honor contracts were reaping their unhappy rewards. She did have a contract for Covent Garden, where she appeared in “Norma” and “La Gioconda” with Rosa Ponselle and as Marina with Chaliapin. Her reviews in the two Italian operas were quite exceptional. The Times: “In Madame Cattaneo was found a mezzo soprano whose rich tones could both contrast and combine with those of Ponselle.” They, however, did not get along at all and there were skirmishes behind the curtain as well as unpleasant exchanges at the footlights.

In late June, Irene returned to Italy, to a very long “vacation”. It was not until December that she appeared on stage. On 26 December Novarra’s Teatro Coccia presented her in “Samson et Dalila”. The career was a shambles. The winter of 1930 provided her with only one engagement in Italy, “Il Trovatore” at Padua. On 2 May, Ettore died at Milan and Irene observed a fifteen day mourning period before returning to Covent Garden for “Norma” with Ponselle and “Aida” with Turner. This time, bridled anger became open hostility. Ponselle received a number of reviews that commented on intonation problems in softer passages while the vocalism of Minghini Cattaneo was lavishly praised. There were very ugly scenes between the two divas, and though the revival was completely sold out, there were only two performances. With this engagement, Cattaneo’s career in London came to an end. In September, she traveled to Zurich for the Manzoni Requiem with Arangi Lombardi, Roberto d’Alessio and Antonio Righetti and in December she appeared at Pavia as La Gioconda for the only time in her career. It was not a success. On New Year’s Eve, Irene sang Azucena at Bologna’s Teatro Duse. It was in 1930 that she recorded “Il Trovatore”, a defining performance which clearly shows that her problems upon the stages of the world had nothing to do with diminished vocal resources. As a compensation, it was known that Maestro Cattaneo, through his connections to Ricordi, had left Irene a great deal of money, an estate that allowed her to maintain an opulent villa at Rimini, where she would spend most of her time.

In April 1931, Irene appeared at the Duse in “Norma” and in May, she joined Amerighi Rutili in a spectacularly received revival of the Bellini opera at Forli. There were three performances and not a ticket was to be found. Cattaneo, in particular, was singled out for superlatives; Il Corriere Padano commented on “her commanding stage image, her gorgeous voice and her perfect intonation.” In June, she continued her succession of engagements as Italy’s minor theaters with “Il Trovatore” at Siena, and in August she returned in glory to Verona’s Arena for Elena in “Mefistofele” with Scacciati, Angelo Mighetti and De Angelis. Again, she decided after five performances that the role really had too high a tessitura, and she never again attempted it. In the autumn, Irene, appeared at Pistoia and at Athens in “Lohengrin”, and on 26 December she closed out the year at Catania in “Norma” with Campigna, Jesus de Gaviria and Antonio Righetti.

The winter of 1932 was spent at Cairo and Alexandria in “Aida”, “La Gioconda” and “Samson et Dalila” and in March she sang in “Norma” at Livorno with her nearly constant partner, Amerighi Rutili. It was not until December that she returned to the stage when she sang Ulrica at La Scala, partnered by Carena, Carosio, Pertile and Galeffi. There were five performances.

1933 was somewhat better for the nearly neglected mezzo. Parma hosted her in “Aida” and “La Gioconda”, Genoa’s Carlo Felice welcomed her back in “La Gioconda” with Gina Cigna, Alessandro Ziliani, Cesare Formichi and Corrado Zambelli, Pistoia offered Cattaneo and Cigna in “Norma”, and at Cagliari, in December, Irene sang in “Aida” with Amerighi Rutili, Luigi Marletta and Granforte. In January 1934 the ensemble brought the Verdi work to Sassari.

Piacenza engaged Cattaneo for “Aida” and “Il Trovatore, both with Arangi Lombardi, in February and in March there was a revival of “Il Trovatore” at Turin’s Regio with Carena, Lauri Volpi and Carlo Morelli. A long summer tour throughout Italy’s provinces took Irene’s time from the middle of June until September. The opera was “Norma”, the title role was shared by Amerighi Rutili and Maria Pedrini, and the towns visited were, Civitavecchia, Grosseto, Livorno, Siena, Montemarchi, Foligno, Frosinone, L’Aquila, Pescara, Foggia, Lecce, Avellino and four hugely applauded performances at Rome.

In September she returned to Bari for “Aida” with Pacetti and Giovanni Martinelli, who was making one of his very rare appearances in Italy, and in December she closed the year at Bologna’s Corso in “Lohengrin”. Where was the Rome Costanzi, where was the Naples San Carlo, why had Scala shunned her in the great mezzo roles for six years? Where were the Barcelona Liceo, the Lisbon Sao Carlo, the major German and Austrian theaters, where was Paris?

In fact, Paris was her next stop, but it did not happen until July of 1935. Tullio Serafin conducted a celebrated revival of “Falstaff” with Cattaneo, Ines Alfani Tellini, Pia Tassinari, Nino Ederle, Stabile and Ernesto Badini. In October she traveled to Venice, where, at the Palazzo Ducale she participated in the Manzoni Requiem with Margherita Grandi, Alessandro Granda and the bass, Ferrari. In November she finally sang at her birthplace, Lugo, in “Il Trovatore” with Pedrini, Breviario and Viviani. 1936 found Irene at only two theaters, Padua’s Verdi for “Aida” and Modena’s Comunale for “Lohengrin” with Licia Albanese, Pablo Civil, Viviani and Mongelli.

In 1937 she sang in “L’Arlesiana” and “Un Ballo in Maschera” at Como, in “Il Trovatore” at Modena and in the Manzoni Requiem at Trieste’s Teatro Verdi. 1938 included her only attempt at the Walkuere Brunnhilde, which was presented at Ravenna, “Aida” at Milan, Ostiglia, Genoa’s Piazza Vittoria, Catania and Ventimiglia, all outdoors. She also sang in “Norma” at Pesaro with Cigna, Ettore Parmeggiani and Flamini.

1939 was a rather interesting year for Irene. She sang in “L’Arlesiana” at Trieste with Tito Schipa, in “Re Hassan” at Venice’s Fenice with Cloe Elmo and Tancredi Pasero and in “Adriana Lecouvreur” for the first and only times in her career when she joined Pacetti, Galliano Masini and Gino Vanelli at Livorno’s Teatro Goldoni. “Il Trovatore” at Bologna and “Un Ballo in Maschera” at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco completed her season.

!940 saw her at only two cities; Pavia, where she sang in Vittadini’s “Anima Allegra” and “La Gioconda” when she returned to the role of La Cieca, and later in the year, Bolzano for additional performances as Cieca. Her farewell was assumed for many years to have been as La Cieca at La Scala in February of 1941, but she is known to have sung at San Sebastian, Spain in September of 1942. “Il Trovatore” was presented with Cigna, Irene and Lauri Volpi.

It was Lauri Volpi, in his “Voci Parallele” who wondered why Irene Minghini Cattaneo had achieved so little with such a prodigious talent. He praised her physical form, her acting abilities, and, most of all, her remarkable vocal talents. To leave this discussion with only a comment that she was the victim of an unpleasant disposition and bad decisions in the early years is not reasonable. Certainly, others were far more difficult, and they are among the giants of the twentieth century. No singer made unfailingly wise choices in unfolding their careers. I do not have an answer, except perhaps, that she knew best what she wanted from her career and her life, and that the picture is the one that she chose to paint.

It should be noted that, despite the fact that every previous biographical sketch has declared that she sang in South America, and that she did so with great success, neither statement is true.

Irene Minghini Cattaneo was found dead at her villa on 24 March 1944, the victim of a bombing attack by Allied forces just before the final surrender of the Italians.

1 note · View note