CD1
01. Donizetti Don Pasquale Act 1. Quel guardo il cavalier...So anch'io
02. Donizetti L'elisir d'amore Act 1. Chiedi all'aura lusinghiera
03. Puccini Tosca Act 2. Vissi d'arte Act 2. Un bel di vedremo       play
04. Puccini Madama Batterfly Un bel di vedremo
05. Puccini Madama Butterfly Tu tu Piccolo iddio!
06. Bizet Carmen Act 3. C'est des contrebandiers...Je dis que rien ne m'épouvent
07. Bizet Les Pecherurs de perles Act 2. Me voilà seul...Comme autrefois
08. Massenet Manon Act 2. Allons!...Adieu, notre petite table
09. Gounod Faust Act 3. Je voudrais bien savoir...Il était un Roi de Thulé...Ah! Je ris (Jewel Song)
10. Gounod Romeo et Juliette Act 1. Voyons, nouricce...Je veux vivre (Waltz Song)

CD2
01. Bellini I Puritani O rendetemi la speme...Qui la voce...Vien, diletto
02. Verdi La Traviata E strano...Ah, fors' e lui, Sempre libera
03. Puccini Gianni Schicchi O mio babbino caro                        play
04. Puccini Manon Lescaut In quelle trini morbide
05. Puccini La Rondine Che il bel sogno di Doretta
06. Puccini Suor Angelica Senza mamma
07. Puccini Turandot Signiore ascolta
08. Puccini Turandot Tu che di gel sei cinta
09. Mascagni Lodoletta Ah! Il suo nome!...Flammen, perdonami!
10. Mascagni L'amico Fritz Son pochi fiori
11. Mascagni L'amico Fritz Non mi resta il pianto
12. Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur Io son l'umile ancella
13. Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur Poveri fiori

Mirella Freni - Soprano (Vocal)
Franco Ferraris 	- Conductor
Nicolai Gedda - Tenor (Vocal)
La Scala Theater Orchestra 	
Alain Lombard - Conductor
Leone Magiera - Conductor
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli - Conductor
Riccardo Muti - Conductor
Paris National Opera Orchestra 	
Philharmonia Orchestra 
RAI Symphony Orchestra, Milan 	
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Chorus & Orchestra 	
Michele Vilma - Mezzo-Soprano (Vocal)
Antonino Votto - Conductor

Mirella Freni made her professional debut as Micaela in Carmen in 1955 in her hometown of Modena and, over the following several seasons, sang at most of the leading Italian opera houses. She made her La Scala debut in 1963 as Nanetta in Falstaff and the following year; she achieved immediate international stardom there, when she was cast by Maestro Herbert von Karajan as Mimì in a new production of La Bohème staged by Franco Zefferelli. Within a short period of time, guest appearances took Ms. Freni to the world’s most important opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, where the prestigious title “Kammersängerin” was conferred upon her by the Austrian Government. In North America, the soprano made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1965. On that occasion, as on the occasions of debuts in San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Miami, the role of Mimì served as her calling card.

In 1970, Ms. Freni began a judicious transition from the purely lyric repertory to that of certain spinto roles, when she starred with Jon Vickers in a new production of Otello at the Salzburg Festival. The conductor was Maestro von Karajan who, perhaps more than anyone, had a profound influence on her career. Other conductors with whom the soprano has enjoyed extended collaborations include: Claudio Abbado, Roberto Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carlos Kleiber, George Prêtre and the aforementioned Maestri Levine, Muti, Ozawa and Sinopoli.

During the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, Mirella Freni continued to expand her repertory by undertaking major Verdi, Puccini and Russian operas, e.g. Don Carlo, Aida, Ernani, Manon Lescaut, Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame. In recent seasons, she has explored the verismo repertory, adding the title roles of Adriana Lecouvrer, Fedora and Madame Sans Gène and The Maid of Orleans. Many of Ms. Freni’s distinguished video performances from the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera and the Vienna State Opera are currently released on DVD. Most recently, Deutsche Grammophon has released the Metropolitan Opera telecasts of Don Carlo and Fedora with Ms. Freni and Placido Domingo.

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1. Le nozze di Figaro - E Susanna non vien
2. I Puritani - O rendetemi la speme
3. La Traviata - E strano... Ah! fors'e lui... Sempre libera
4. Carmen - C'est de contrabandiers
5. Le Pecheurs de Perles - Me voilla seule dans la nuit
6. Manon - Adieu notre petite table
7. Louise - Depuis le jour
8. Gianni Schicchi - O mio babbino caro
9. La Rondine - Chi il bel sogno de Doretta
10. Tosca - Vissi d'arte
11. Manon Lescaut - In quelle trine morbide
12. Turandot - Signore ascolta
13. Madama Butterfly - Un bel di vedremo
14. Madama Butterfly - Tu, tu piccolo Iddio
15. Suor Angelica - Senza mamma
16. Adriana Lecouvreur - Io son l'umille ancella
17. Adriana Lecouvreur - Poveri fiori

The Italian soprano, Mirella Freni (born: Mirella Fregni), was born into a working class family in Modena (both her mother and tenor Luciano Pavarotti's mother worked in the same cigarette factory in that city). She was a musically gifted child and sang Un bel dì vedremo in a radio competition at age ten. The tenor Beniamino Gigli warned her, however, that she risked ruining her voice and advised her to give up singing until she was older. She resumed singing at age 17.

Mirella Freni made her operatic debut in Modena at 1955, at age 19, as Micaëla in Georges Bizet's Carmen. She was offered many roles after this, but she decided to put her career aside and marry her singing teacher, Leone Magiera, and have a child. She resumed her career in 1958 by winning a singing competition and singing Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème at the Teatro Regio in Torino. She then sang with the Netherlands Opera during the 1959-1960 season. Her international breakthrough came when she sang Adina in Franco Zeffirelli's staging of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at Glyndebourne, where she also sang the Mozart comic roles of Susanna and Zerlina during the 1960-1962 seasons.

In 1961, Mirella Freni made her Royal Opera House debut as Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff. In 1963, she made her debut at La Scala, in a production staged by Zeffirelli and conducted by Herbert von Karajan (Freni went on to become one of Herbert von Karajan's favourite singers, and she collaborated with him in numerous operas and concerts). In 1965, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Mimì, and later appeared there as Liù in Puccini's Turandot, as well as Marguerite in Faust and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

From the early 1970's into the 1980's, Mirella Freni began singing heavier Verdi roles, notably Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Desdemona in Otello, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Elvira in Ernani, Leonora in La forza del destino, and the title role of Aida. She also added the Puccini heroines of Manon Lescaut and Tosca to her repertory, and recorded Madama Butterfly as well as all three roles of Il trittico.She also starred in a film of Madame Butterfly opposite Plácido Domingo as B.F.Pinkerton. In 1976 she starred memorably as Susanna in a filmed production of Le Nozze di Figaro (also starring Kiri te Kanawa and Hermann Prey) by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.

In 1981, Mirella Freni married Nicolai Ghiaurov, one of the leading operatic basses of the post-war period. Together they helped establish the Centro Universale del Bel Canto in Vignola, where they started giving master-classes in 2002. Following Ghiaurov's death in 2004, Freni continued their work in preserving the Bel Canto tradition, and currently teaches young singers from around the world.

Mirella Freni published a memoir, Mio Caro Teatro in 1990. She was also awarded the order Cavaliere della Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana that year and the French Légion d'Honneur in March 1993. The University of Pisa awarded her an honorary degree in 2002 for "her great contribution to European culture."

Mirella Freni is much admired for the youthful quality of her voice and her acting skills. Her repertoire encompasses some forty roles, Verdi and Puccini in particular but also Mozart and Tchaikovsky. She continued to add to her repertory well into the 1990's with Italian verismo, taking on the title roles of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur in Milan, Paris, Barcelone and New York and Giordano's Fedora in London, Milan, New York, Torino, Barcelone and Zürich. In 1998, she performed Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne in Catania. During this time she also ventured into the Russian operas of Tchaikovsky, appearing as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Lisa in The Queen of Spades, and Ioanna in Orleanskaya Deva. In 2005, the Metropolitan Opera celebrated the 40th anniversary of her Met debut and her 50th anniversary on the stage with a special gala concert conducted by James Levine. She ended her professional career on stage with Orleanskaya Deva at the Washington National Opera on April 11, 2005, performing the teenager Ioanna (Joan of Arc) at 70 years of age. ---bach-cantatas.com

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1  Le Due Illustre - Leggio già nel vostro cor	13:02
2  Bianca e Fernando - Ove son? Che m'avvenne?...Sorgi, o padre	10:53
3  Le nozze di Figaro, K.492 / Act 3 - "Cosa mi narri"..."Sull'aria ... che soave zefiretto" 4:02
4  Norma / Act 2 - Dormondo entrambi...Mira, O Norma..Si, fino all'ore 	23:53

Mirella Freni – soprano
Renata Scotto – soprano
Janice Alford – mezzo-soprano
National Philharmonic Orchestra
Leone Magiera – conductor (1-3)
Lorenzo Anselmi – conductor (4)

Admirers of Scotto will note that this version of the Norma/Adalgisa duet (the whole scene from the prelude on) was recorded a full year before Scotto contributed to the complete set of Norma under James Levine, issued last summer (CBS 79327, 7/80). It is partly a question of recording quality and balance, partly of interpretation with Levine a more thrusting conductor, but also of vocal condition that in almost every way this recital version is a more sympathetic rendering. Where in the CBS performance the unevenness of the voice under pressure in the upper register is often disagreeable, it is only at the end of the long opening solo that it emerges here, and generally with Anselmi an understanding accompanist, it is altogether sweeter, subtler and more delicately pointed. In both the high phrase, "Teneri, teneri figli", is delicately floated, but the full bloom of the voice comes out far more in the Decca recording. The fierceness of the declaration "Di Pollion son figli" may be less abrasive here, but it still has a Callas-like tang.

It is only in the last third of the side that the duet proper "Mira, o Norma" arrives, and there the matching is beautiful. The cabaletta is here even faster than with Levine, but it is more delicately pointed with the subito piano passages more clearly defined and with better control in the top notes at the end. The matching between two celebrated sopranos of like background was obviously the inspiration for this recital disc, but the rare Mercadante duet—climactic confrontation in an opera praised by Liszt at its first production in 1838—at once reveals a problem. For such a number the voices are too alike, and one distinguishes the voices as much by direction—Scotto on the left, Freni on the right— as by vocal timbre. I am glad to note that with the finished record there will be a full text, which I fear I have not seen. The dramatic exchanges in the first part of the duet bring from Scotto some of the squalliness that has disfigured too much of her recent singing (including the complete Norma) but the arioso is enchantingly done by both singers, relaxing at the end—whatever Mercadante's radical pretensions—into the traditional chains of thirds, before the formidable cabaletta.

Welcome as that rarity is, the Bellini item from Bianca e Fernando is even more so, for this passage from an early opera originally written in 1828 and revised two years later, immediately establishes a far more individual voice. Here in a dreamy compound-time melody Freni has the dOminant contribution, and no cabaletta follows. As for the Mozart it will win no award from stylists. But here it is apt enough that the Letter Duet should be given in a romantic Bellinian style, slow and rather dreamy too, and of course with not a hint of an appoggiatura. The recording on both sides is warm and atmospheric with the voices well caught, though nowadays Freni like Scotto is no longer perfectly steady under pressure on top. --- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [1/1981]

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1 Ombra mai fu (Largo) da Serse (G.F. Haendel) 3:43
2 Ninna nanna (W.A. Mozart) 3:35
3 Ave Maria (F. Schubert) 5:28
4 Wiegenlied (F. Schubert) 3:30
5 Maria Wiegenlied Op.76 n.52 (Max Reger) 2:29
6 Ninna nanna (J. Brahms) 3:38
7 Ave Maria (Bach-Gounod) 4:08
8 Als die Alte Mutter Op.55 n.4 (A. Dvorak) 2:51
9 La carità da trois choeurs religieux (G. Rossini) 6:20
10 Ninna nanna di Modigliana (F. Balilla Pratella 1886-1955) 3:07
11 Ninanana (F. Balilla Pratella) 4:14

Mirella Freni – soprano
Orchestra E Coro Ente Autonomo Teatro Comunale Di Bologna
Leone Magiera - conductor

The Italian soprano, Mirella Freni (born: Mirella Fregni), was born into a working class family in Modena (both her mother and tenor Luciano Pavarotti's mother worked in the same cigarette factory in that city). She was a musically gifted child and sang Un bel dì vedremo in a radio competition at age ten. The tenor Beniamino Gigli warned her, however, that she risked ruining her voice and advised her to give up singing until she was older. She resumed singing at age 17.

Mirella Freni made her operatic debut in Modena at 1955, at age 19, as Micaëla in Georges Bizet's Carmen. She was offered many roles after this, but she decided to put her career aside and marry her singing teacher, Leone Magiera, and have a child. She resumed her career in 1958 by winning a singing competition and singing Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème at the Teatro Regio in Torino. She then sang with the Netherlands Opera during the 1959-1960 season. Her international breakthrough came when she sang Adina in Franco Zeffirelli's staging of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at Glyndebourne, where she also sang the Mozart comic roles of Susanna and Zerlina during the 1960-1962 seasons.

In 1961, Mirella Freni made her Royal Opera House debut as Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff. In 1963, she made her debut at La Scala, in a production staged by Zeffirelli and conducted by Herbert von Karajan (Freni went on to become one of Herbert von Karajan's favourite singers, and she collaborated with him in numerous operas and concerts). In 1965, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Mimì, and later appeared there as Liù in Puccini's Turandot, as well as Marguerite in Faust and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

From the early 1970's into the 1980's, Mirella Freni began singing heavier Verdi roles, notably Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Desdemona in Otello, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Elvira in Ernani, Leonora in La forza del destino, and the title role of Aida. She also added the Puccini heroines of Manon Lescaut and Tosca to her repertory, and recorded Madama Butterfly as well as all three roles of Il trittico.She also starred in a film of Madame Butterfly opposite Plácido Domingo as B.F.Pinkerton. In 1976 she starred memorably as Susanna in a filmed production of Le Nozze di Figaro (also starring Kiri te Kanawa and Hermann Prey) by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.

In 1981, Mirella Freni married Nicolai Ghiaurov, one of the leading operatic basses of the post-war period. Together they helped establish the Centro Universale del Bel Canto in Vignola, where they started giving master-classes in 2002. Following Ghiaurov's death in 2004, Freni continued their work in preserving the Bel Canto tradition, and currently teaches young singers from around the world.

Mirella Freni published a memoir, Mio Caro Teatro in 1990. She was also awarded the order Cavaliere della Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana that year and the French Légion d'Honneur in March 1993. The University of Pisa awarded her an honorary degree in 2002 for "her great contribution to European culture."

Mirella Freni is much admired for the youthful quality of her voice and her acting skills. Her repertoire encompasses some forty roles, Verdi and Puccini in particular but also Mozart and Tchaikovsky. She continued to add to her repertory well into the 1990's with Italian verismo, taking on the title roles of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur in Milan, Paris, Barcelone and New York and Giordano's Fedora in London, Milan, New York, Torino, Barcelone and Zürich. In 1998, she performed Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne in Catania. During this time she also ventured into the Russian operas of Tchaikovsky, appearing as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Lisa in The Queen of Spades, and Ioanna in Orleanskaya Deva. In 2005, the Metropolitan Opera celebrated the 40th anniversary of her Met debut and her 50th anniversary on the stage with a special gala concert conducted by James Levine. She ended her professional career on stage with Orleanskaya Deva at the Washington National Opera on April 11, 2005, performing the teenager Ioanna (Joan of Arc) at 70 years of age. --- bach-cantatas.com

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