Franco Leoni - Legacy

Legacy

Little of Leoni's work outlived him. Gramophone recordings survive of his contemporaries Clara Butt and Frances Alda performing his songs. Later singers, including Julie Andrews and Bryn Terfel, have continued to perform his hunting song (in which the fox escapes), "Tally Ho!"

Of Leoni's operas, only L'Oracolo has retained a foothold in the repertory of major opera houses. Scotti's fondness for the work led the Metropolitan Opera to stage it from time to time, and he chose it for his farewell appearance in 1933. Thereafter it was rarely performed, but it came to public attention again when the conductor Richard Bonynge made a complete recording of the piece in 1975–76 starring his wife, Joan Sutherland, and the veteran Tito Gobbi as the villain. That LP recording was reissued on CD in 1997. Occasional stage revivals have included those at the Curtis Institute (1949), the Philadelphia Opera (1952), the Glasgow Grand Opera Society (1994) and the Frankfurt Opera, 2009, with another run scheduled for 2011.