Discover

'Fiorenza Cossotto' is an Italian mezzosoprano. She is considered by many to be one of the great mezzo-sopranos of the 20th century, a natural successor to Giulietta Simionato.

Contents

Life and early career

Cossotto and Callas

Breakdown, second prime and twilights

Selected roles

External links

Life and early career

Born on April 22, 1935 in Crescentino di Vercelli, Italy, Cossotto attended the Turin Academy of Music and graduated top of her class. After her studies with Mercedes Llopart, she made her operatic debut as Sister Matilde in the world premiere of Poulenc's ''Dialogues of the Carmelites'' in 1957 at La Scala in Milan. Her international debut was at the 1958 Wexford Festival as Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti's ''Anna Bolena''. Her Covent Garden debut was in 1959 as Neris in Cherubini's ''Médée'', with Maria Callas in the title role. A 1961 performance of the lead in ''La favorita'' at La Scala led to wider fame and she made her American debut in the same role in 1964 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and as Amneris at the Metropolitan Opera in 1968.
She was married to the Italian bass Ivo Vinco for more than 40 years, and had a child. The marriage ended in divorce.

Cossotto and Callas

Fiorenza sang with Maria Callas as early as 1957 in Gluck's ''Iphigénie en Tauride'', and many times later, until Callas' last Norma in Paris. However, at one performance in Paris, right after their duet, Callas has canceled the rest of the performance.
Some claim that Cossotto intentionally sabotaged Callas by over-singing her and holding high notes longer when the latter's voice (by that time - 1965) was in poor form.
Others claim in favor of Cossotto that she encouraged Callas to do the best that she could, and otherwise was quite cautious with her and tried to back her up.
Private recordings made at the time (and issued subsequently) are interpreted in both ways.
Both Cossotto (in an interview, 2005) and Ivo Vinco (1982) said that Callas was a great friend of Cossotto, and it was she who invited her to sing Adalgisa.
On the other hand, Zeffirelli and Simionato were both on the accusers' side.
This occasion is under a debate still, mainly because the main figure who could tell the truth died in 1977.

Breakdown, second prime and twilights

Her prime lasted until the year 1975.
In 1976 appeared some pitch-problems in the higher register which became apparent in live concerts.
She was not always off-pitch, sometimes she even had really good nights (such as Karajan's last ''Il Trovatore''), but it could happen to her.
Perhaps knowing that her best had passed and that she was now on the downslide, she decided to put on record some roles she never recorded in the studio before, such as Lady Macbeth in ''Macbeth'' (a role she never did on stage), Preziosilla in ''La forza del destino'', Leonora in ''La favorita'', ''Tancredi''.
She was awarded the Gold record for her performance of Lady Macbeth.
Encouraged by her successful ''Macbeth'', she tried her luck in a recital of soprano arias by Verdi (which included arias from ''Nabucco'' and ''Un ballo in maschera'').
The disc includes also experts from ''Tancredi'', but did not receive the same critical acclaim as did Macbeth.
Towards the end of the 1970s she worked on repairing her security on top, and it seems that by 1981 she regained a second prime.
Her recorded Amneris in the Arena de Verona from 1981 is magnificent (except for one flat high B-flat at the end of the second act), and her hit on high B-flat singing "Lache" as Dalila in the Met opera from 1982 still rings in the lucky audience's ears.
However, her voice began deteriorating - the pitch was not a problem now, but the voice-quality throughout the range.
In 1985, at the Arena di Verona, She appeared as Azucena. She is still very accurate, but the vibrato became too heavy. Not a wobble yet, but almost.
Till the end of the 1980s it became a wobble she could not get rid of, and from that time she performed less frequently.
She was inherited by a younger generation of dramatic mezzos, such as Dolora Zajick and Olga Borodina.
Still, she kept on singing from time to time, and in 2005 she celebrated her 70th birthday with a performance of ''Suor Angelica'' at the Théâtre Royal in Liège, Belgium.

Selected roles

According to the book "Opera" published by Koenemann, She was "...the leading Italian mezzo-soprano of the 1960s and 1970's. She won plaudits in the annals of operatic history for her wonderful vocal timbre, her perfect singing technique, and the ease with which she could master different registers. Besides singing the great mezzo roles, she also took the outstanding alto parts of the Italian operatic repertoire."
It should be noted that apart from mezzo and alto roles she also sang soprano roles which are traditionally sang by mezzos, such as Santuzza (''Cavalleria Rusticana'') and Adalgisa (''Norma'').
She also tried her luck in soprano roles (alas in studio only) of Lady Macbeth and Marchesa del Poggio (''Un giorno di regno''), and made a commercial recording of soprano arias by Verdi.
There are some roles which she surely "owned":

★ Azucena
She is probably the most popular Azucena on the discography. She recorded the role twice (at least) in studio (for Tullio Serafin and Zubin Mehta) and many other recordings of live performances are available.
Under Serafin (1963) she sings very well, yet her voice - rich with overtones - sounds too bright somehow, and she is a bit nervous too. For Mehta (1970), however, she had already learned to darken it, and (now more relaxed) sings with brilliant tone throughout.

★ Adalgisa
Again, the most recorded Adalgisa ever.
It is bizarre though, because Cossotto's voice doesn't seem to fit the light soprano part written in Bel-canto style.
She actually is infamous of making this role another Amneris, singing it too much verdian in style.
Yet, in her studio recording alongside Caballe she proves herself to have a wonderful breath control, ease in the soprano register and secure coloratura, which enabled her to do justice to the role.
She has sung (and recorded) Adalgisa in with Callas, Joan Sutherland, Caballé, Gencer and Elena Souliotis.

★ Santuzza
She sang in a commercial recording the role under the bottom of Karajan (1966), and also in the soundtrack of Karajan's movie two years later (with similar cast).
Her recorded studio-performance is considered to be the best ever, and many thoughts were made about whether she should have been a wagnerian soprano instead of a verdian mezzo.
Maybe Isolde or Kundry could have worked out fine...

★ Leonore
It made her first internationally famous. It's not a most frequently performed opera, and Cossotto's recorded live performances, and studio-recording together with Pavarotti are reference recordings.
Other roles include all of Verdi's other mezzo roles, such as Ulrica (''Un Ballo in Maschera''), Amneris and Eboli (''Don Carlo''), which to some extent are also "hers".
She also issued of the french repertoire (''Carmen'') and Dalila (''Samson et Dalila''), and form her early career also Cherubino (''Le Nozze di Figaro'') and Rosina (''Il Barbiere di Siviglia'').
When young, she sang Vania in ''A Life for the Tsar'', and in 1973 sang Marfa in ''Khovanshchina'', which brings to mind that she could have done well also as Marina in ''Boris Godunov'' etc.

External links

★ http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=1845&issueID=80&archive=true

★ Video of Fiorenza Cossotto singing Habanera from Bizet's Carmen