Rosa Raisa
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Rosa Raisa (30 May 1893 - 28 September 1963) was a Polish-born, Italian-trained, Russian-Jewish dramatic soprano. She was one of the most highly-acclaimed operatic performers of her time with a voice of great size. In 1926 she created the role of Turandot at La Scala, Milan.
[edit] Career
She was born Raitza Burchstein, the daughter of Herschel and Frieda Leah, in Bialystok in 1893. She left Poland at the age of 14 due to the pogroms and emigrated to Italy. There she met well-connected people (the Dario Ascarellis) who recognized her talent and potential and sponsored her at the Naples Conservatory (San Pietro a Majella).
Her teacher at the conservatory, the contralto Barbara Marchisio (1833-1919), had been one of the most prominent Italian singers of the mid-19th century. (See, for example, Marchisio's entry in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, edited by Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, Oxford University Press, second edition, 1980.) Marchisio brought Raisa in 1912 to Cleofonte Campanini, the leading operatic conductor and impresario. He engaged the 20-year-old singer for the Parma Verdi Centenary and signed her for his Chicago Opera.
Debuts and successes followed rapidly for Raisa: Parma, Philadelphia, Chicago, a tour of North America, London and Paris. During the early period of World War I she made debuts at Rome, Milan (La Scala), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón) and Rio de Janeiro. She returned to the Chicago Opera in autumn 1916 as a well-established dramatic soprano. Enrico Caruso, who sang with her in London and Buenos Aires, considered her the "greatest dramatic soprano in the world". Triumphs followed rapidly; she was acclaimed for her Aida, Norma, Maliella in I gioielli della Madonna, and Rachel in La Juive.
In 1924, Arturo Toscanini brought her back to La Scala for the creation of Boito's Nerone (in the role of Asteria). At that time Giacomo Puccini heard her again (he had first heard her sing in 1916) and told her he wanted her to create the lead role in his new, as yet unfinished opera, Turandot. Puccini died in November of that year and left Turandot unfinished. Turandot had its world premiere at La Scala on April 25, 1926 under Toscanini's baton, with Raisa appearing as Turandot and Miguel Fleta as Calaf. It was at this performance that Toscanini stopped the performance at the exact point where Puccini had left off; the finale, prepared by Franco Alfano from Puccini's musical sketches, was given at the second performance a few nights later.
Raisa had been married since 1920 to the Italian baritone Giacomo Rimini (1887-1952), whom she had first met in late 1915. Their careers merged and after retirement in 1938 they opened a voice/opera school together in Chicago. Their daughter was born in July 1931. They sang hundreds of concerts together, especially in the United States, many of them sponsored by Jewish groups as Raisa had become a beloved ethnic icon. She often closed her recitals with the Yiddish song "Eili, Eili."
It is generally believed that Raisa's comparatively few studio recordings, which show a formidable technique and beautiful timbre, do not reveal the extraordinary vocal power for which she became famous with opera audiences. An anthology of these recordings was issued in 1998 on CD by Marston Records (number 53001-2). The Marston issue also contains an audio interview with Raisa, while its liner notes feature valuable biographical information about her and an evaluation of her voice.
Rosa Raisa died in Los Angeles in 1963.
[edit] References
In 2001, her biography was published: Rosa Raisa, a Biography of a Diva with Selections from her Memoirs by Charles Mintzer.
