RENATA SCOTTO: THE 1984 TOKYO CONCERT DVD

Program Information

The recital on our DVD dates back to 1984 and photographs a Renata Scotto in her full artistic maturity. At the time the singer was 50 years old, 32 of which she had spent on stage. The programme is vast and varied in epochs, styles and composers and shows the elasticity of an artist of solid technique gifted with absolutely extraordinary musicality.

Alongside famous pages of opera, like Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo or Tu che la vanita from Verdi’s Don Carlo, Renata Scotto tackles lesser-known pages, like the beautiful Petrarchan sonnets set by Franz Liszt in 1844/45. Here perhaps the artist gives the best of herself, exhibiting a palette of colours that is truly rich in nuances and dazzling control of vocal emission.

At the end of this demanding programme, based chiefly on chamber music, Renata Scotto offers four encores, two of which are dedicated to Puccini operas (Tosca and Butterfly) shrewdly kept back for a grand finale.

Strong Points

This DVD contains a thirteen-minute video featuring the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor, performed at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, September 1967.

The performance of this recital put an end to the eleven-year absence of Renata Scotto from the Japanese stages.

The Italian soprano is very happy to sing in front of an audience that she cherishes much, to whom she dedicates the rare musical gems contained in the programme. Together with famous arias from renown operas she sings some rare and neglected works ( Edgar, Puccini’s first opera as well as Sole e Amore, a song that the Italian composer wrote before the success of La Boheme . Almost unknown are also Respighi’s songs and five unpublished songs by Giuseppe Verdi)

Scotto believes that the artistic form of the recital allows her to communicate better with the audience; the singer is on stage as an individual conveying her emotions in a very immediate way to each person in front of her.

Artist Bio

Renata Scotto, soprano
Thomas Fulton, piano

Renata Scotto is one of the greatest, most famous sopranos of the post-war period, belonging to the "golden age" of opera, a period spanning roughly from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Born on 24th February 1934 in Savona, near Genoa, Scotto immediately revealed her very precocious talent, and debuted at the age of 18 as Violetta in La Traviata at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan.

The following year, in 1953,she sang in the opening opera of the season at La Scala in Milan, in Catalani’s La Wally, alongside Renata Tebaldi and Mario del Monaco.

She won an overwhelming personal success, overshadowing even that of her two famous colleagues.

For a few years Scotto’s career remained mainly Italian.

Then, in 1957, came her great break: the Teatro alla Scala was on tour at the Edinburgh Festival with Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Maria Callas was cast in the leading role of Amina.

The performance was so successful that it was decided to add another recital to the schedule.

The Greek soprano, however, was unavailable, and at only two days’ notice was replaced by Renata Scotto who thus achieved consecration as an international opera star.

From then on Renata Scotto was to sing with all the great stars of her time. She made numerous recordings, always partnered by famous artists: Giuseppe Di Stefano, Ettore Bastiannini, Tito Gobbi, Gianni Poggi, Carlo Bergonzi and Rolando Panerai .

In 1965 with Madama Buttterfly she made her first appearance at the Metropolitan in New York, where in 1977 she performed in her legendary La Boheme, alongside Luciano Pavarotti, under the baton of James Levine.

This was undoubtedly one of the finest ever performances of the great Puccini masterpiece.

As she matured vocally and artistically, though endowed with an essentially lyrical voice, Renata Scotto was able to tackle more dramatic roles like Lady Macbeth, Elena inVespri Siciliani, Norma, the Mareschallin in Rosenkavalier, Francesca da Rimini, Fedora, Kundry in Parsifal and others. She retired from the stage in 2002, but long before this date Renata Scotto had already begun to reap important successes as a director.

She has long been active as a teacher of opera singing too; she regularly holds masterclasses in New York, Albisola, and in Rome.

Track List:
1. Lascia ch’io pianga (from Rinaldo)

Alessandro Scarlatti
2. Cara e dolce
3. Bellezza che s’ama

Gioachino Rossini
4. La Promessa
5. La Pastorella

Giuseppe Verdi
Six songs
6. La preghiera del poeta
7. Al tuo bambino
8. Il brigidino
9. E la vita un mar d’affanni
10. Pieta, Signor
11. Stornello
12. Tu che le vanita (from Don Carlo)

Franz Liszt
Petrarch Sonnets
13. Pace non trov
14. Io vidi in terra angelici costumi

Ottorino Respighi
15. Soupir
16. Au milieu du jardin

Giacomo Puccini
17. Sole e amore
18. D’ogni dolor questo e il piu gran dolor (from Edgar)

Pietro Mascagni
19. Senti, bambino (from Zanetto)

ENCORES:

Giacomo Puccini
20. Vissi d’arte (from Tosca)

Pietro Mascagni
21. M’ama non m’ama

Giacomo Puccini
22. Tu? Tu? Piccolo Iddio! (from Madama Butterfly)
Kan’i Hoken Hall, Tokyo 6th September 1984

演員
Renata Scotto: Soprano
Thomas Fulton: piano