Fiorenza Cossotto

Fiorenza Cossotto (born April 22, 1935) is an Italian mezzo-soprano. She is considered by many to be one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos of the 20th century.

Life and career

Born on April 22, 1935 in Crescentino, Province of 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 1962 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.

Altogether between the seasons of 1967–68 and 1988–89 she gave 148 performances at the Met (exclusively leading roles). She was considered an expert in portrayals of major mezzo/contralto roles in mid-19th-century Italian opera; e.g. Favorita, Amneris, Azucena, Eboli, Preziosilla, Maddalena, Ulrica and Laura. She also essayed Carmen, Mozart's Cherubino, Urbain in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Bellini's Romeo and Marfa in Khovantschina.

She kept on singing, and in 2005 she celebrated her 70th birthday with a performance of Suor Angelica at the Théâtre Royal in Liège, Belgium.

She was married to the Italian bass Ivo Vinco for over 40 years (ending in divorce). Their only child was a son, Roberto.

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. The last performance of the latter was truncated when Callas' walked out right after their quintessential duet, "Mira, o Norma." Some claim that Cossotto intentionally sabotaged Callas by singing over her and holding high notes longer with the latter's voice (by that time, 1965) past its prime and in poor form. Others claim, in favor of Cossotto, that she encouraged Callas to sing as best as she could, and was quite cautious with her and tried to give her as much support as she could. Private recordings made at the time (and issued subsequently) are interpreted in both ways. Both Cossotto (in an interview, 2006) and Ivo Vinco (1982) said that Callas was a great friend of Cossotto, and invited her to sing Adalgisa to her Norma in the first place. On the other hand, Zeffirelli and older star mezzo Giulietta Simionato both took the accusers' side. This controversy is still being debated, particularly because the one who is closest to the truth; i.e., Callas herself, died in 1977.

Cossotto on the subject:

"But look, it's a disgrace! It's been forty years, and books still come out speaking ill of me. The first year we did our rehearsals, and everything went well. Callas was in good voice. There was no reason for her not to do Norma, which was her warhorse. During the last two performances [in 1965], she was not well —- she had a cold, which passed down [into the chest]. The last performance, poor thing, she couldn't say no, because all Onassis's elite [retinue] was in the theater. But logically she couldn't [sing], because she had already sung two performances [with] the cold. You don't play with Norma! In the [first] duet, it goes up to an A for the mezzo-soprano and Callas must do the C; [but] the C didn't come out. When we got to the end of the duet, she could no longer do [here Cossotto sings the four ascending notes to the C]. But I couldn't hear this. I didn't know if she sang or didn't sing. I thought it was better I sing my A calmly so people won't notice, just in case. Instead, they started to say, 'Look, she sings when the other one doesn't sing anymore!' But the other one didn't make a sound because she was ill —- the voice didn't come out.

"Later, Callas, at the end of the second act, said to me, 'Fiorenza, stay tonight until the end because I am not well, and we will all go out [to take curtain calls and bow] together.' We'll make a bit of a good impression, is what she wanted to say. 'Look,' I said, 'I can't, because I have to pack since tomorrow morning I have to leave really early, but let's see.' My hotel was right next to the Opéra. I said, 'I'll manage. I'll go and come back right away.' If she had been angry with me, she wouldn't have said this. Is it true or not? But no one has ever published this! They have never said, 'Callas insisted that Cossotto be present at the end of the third act, that she go and thank the audience.' So how does one explain this? If I had sung an extra note —- something only idiots can assert -— she wouldn't have said to me, 'Stay.' She would have been angry. From there it started. Even now, at a distance of forty years, they still speak ill of me. She wanted me the second year, wanted my presence. So what is all this fantasy? They do it to enrich the books and the articles, and so they damage a person. I tried to help her onstage in every way. I have always been a serious colleague, not a colleague who does harm to people."

Simionato's claim:

"...she [Callas] asked me to sing with her in two of her final performances of Norma [in Paris], for her other partner [Fiorenza Cossotto] had been behaving inconsiderately."

Spectrum of roles

According to the book "Opera" published by Koenemann, "She [Cossotto] and Giulietta Simionato were the leading Italian mezzo-sopranos of the 1960s and 1970s. She [Cossotto] 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." Among her competitors were Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry, Rita Gorr, Christa Ludwig, Marilyn Horne, Viorica Cortez and Tatiana Troyanos.

Apart from mezzo and alto roles, she also sang soprano roles traditionally sung by mezzos such as Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana) and Adalgisa (Norma).

She sang Adalgisa next to the Normas of Callas, Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Elinor Ross and Elena Souliotis. Full live documents (except only partially for Callas) of these performances have been commercially released in audio and/or video.

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.

Her repertory at the Met included Amneris, Eboli, Adalgisa, Santuzza, Azucena, Dalila, Carmen (only on tour and in outdoor park concerts), Principessa (Adriana Lecouvreur) and Mistress Quickly (which she added in 1985, singing with Giuseppe Taddei as Falstaff).

Studio Discography

Year	Work Role	Conductor Cast members	Label
1957	La sonnambula, Teresa	Antonino Votto Maria Callas Nicola Monti	EMI Classics
1957	Andrea Chénier, Bersi	Gianandrea Gavazzeni Renata Tebaldi Mario del Monaco	Decca
1958	Madama Butterfly, Suzuki	Tullio Serafin Renata Tebaldi Carlo Bergonzi	Decca Records
1959	La Gioconda, Laura	Antonino Votto Maria Callas Piero Cappuccilli	EMI Classics
1959	The Marriage of Figaro, Cherubino	Carlo Maria Giulini Giuseppe Taddei Elisabeth Schwarzkopf	EMI Classics
1959	Requiem (Verdi), Mezzo-Soprano	Tullio Serafin Boris Christoff Eugenio Fernandi	Testament Records
1961	Don Carlos, Eboli	Gabriele Santini Boris Christoff Antonietta Stella	Deutsche Grammophon
1963	Il trovatore, Azucena	Tullio Serafin Carlo Bergonzi Antonietta Stella	Deutsche Grammophon
1964	Rigoletto, Maddalena	Rafael Kubelík Renata Scotto Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau	Deutsche Grammophon
1965	Cavalleria rusticana, Santuzza	Herbert von Karajan Carlo Bergonzi Giangiacomo Guelfi	Deutsche Grammophon
1967	Medea, Neris	Lamberto Gardelli Gwyneth Jones Bruno Prevedi	Decca Records
1967	Requiem (Verdi), Mezzo-Soprano	Herbert von Karajan Leontyne Price Luciano Pavarotti	Deutsche Grammophon (audio and video)
1968	Cavalleria rusticana, Santuzza	Herbert von Karajan Gianfranco Cecchele Giangiacomo Guelfi	Deutsche Grammophon (Film)
1970	Requiem (Verdi), Mezzo-Soprano	Sir John Barbirolli Montserrat Caballé Jon Vickers	EMI Classics
1970	Il trovatore, Azucena	Zubin Mehta Leontyne Price Plácido Domingo	RCA Records
1972	Norma, Adalgisa	Carlo Felice Cillario Montserrat Caballé Plácido Domingo	RCA Records
1973	Suor Angelica, La zia Principessa	Bruno Bartoletti Katia Ricciarelli Maria Grazia Allegri	RCA Records
1974	Un giorno di regno, Marchesa del Poggio	Lamberto Gardelli Jessye Norman José Carreras	Philips Records
1974	Aida, Amneris	Riccardo Muti Montserrat Caballé Plácido Domingo	EMI Classics
1974	La favorite, Leonora	Richard Bonynge Luciano Pavarotti Gabriel Bacquier	Decca Records
1975	Un ballo in maschera, Ulrica	Riccardo Muti Martina Arroyo Plácido Domingo	EMI Classics
1976	Macbeth, Lady Macbeth	Riccardo Muti Sherrill Milnes José Carreras	EMI Classics
1976	La forza del destino, Preziosilla	James Levine Leontyne Price Plácido Domingo	RCA Records
1978	Tancredi, Tancredi	Gabriele Ferro Lella Cuberli Nicola Ghiuselev	Warner Fonit
1978	Arie di Verdi, Abigaille (Nabucco) Elvira (Ernani) Medora(Il Corsaro) Eboli (Don Carlo) Amelia (Un ballo in maschera)	Nello Santi Ivo Vinco	Warner Fonit

External links

• Article and interview with Cossotto "Fiorenza, full throttle"
• Video of Fiorenza Cossotto singing Habanera from Bizet's Carmen on YouTube
• Interview with Fiorenza Cossotto and Ivo Vinco by Bruce Duffie, September 29, 1983