Tall Diva

As a schoolgirl in Parma, Renata Tebaldi used to imagine her dream man: he would have the voice of a Beniamino Gigli and the build of a Clark Gable. As she grew older, she developed a superb soprano voice and a tall (5 ft. 10 in.), statuesque build. Last week world-famous Soprano Tebaldi made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Tenor Mario Del Monaco (5 ft. 8 1/2 in.), who--though highly gifted--is neither a Gigli in voice nor a Gable in height. Soprano Tebaldi (as Desdemona) seemed to tower over Tenor Del Monaco (as Otello). At a particularly tender moment in Verdi's powerful opera, he had to get up on a step to kiss her.

Nevertheless, it was a loudly cheered debut. Majestically handsome and graceful, Soprano Tebaldi at first let her voice get hard and edgy in the climaxes. Even so, her phrasing was such a delicate tracery of lovely lights and shades that the other singers sounded colorless by comparison. In the last act, she finally showed why she is compared with such legendary sopranos as Galli-Curci and Claudia Muzio: she sang parts of Willow, Willow, the Ave Maria, and particularly her dying phrases, with ravishing warmth and richness.

Soprano Tebaldi's forte is her pianissimo. Daughter of a Pesaro cellist, she finished off her studies in Parma with famed Soprano Carmen Melis, who took her in hand and taught her how to float those vivid tones. She made her big-time debut the night La Scala reopened after the war, singing in a concert under Arturo Toscanini. Her specialty is igth century Italian pulse-bumpers, but Renata is a placid, hard-working woman who says she does not really like to sing passionate heroines. How will her Aida sound next week at the Met? Not too passionate, she says. Aida, so Toscanini convinced her, is really a mild woman, essentially just "a very good daughter."

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