Licia Albanese - Recordings and Legacy

Recordings and Legacy

Albanese appeared in the very first live telecast from the Metropolitan Opera, Verdi's Otello, opposite Ramón Vinay and Leonard Warren, conducted by Fritz Busch. One of the first generation of opera singers to appear widely in recordings and on the radio, her performances, now reappearing on both compact disc and video, have provided a lasting testament to her ability. From these recordings, future generations will be able to form some impression of what she was like as a singer and to understand what made her unique as an artist.

She took part in famous recordings with Beniamino Gigli and Arturo Toscanini, as well as live performances over the NBC radio network in the 1940s.

Toscanini invited her to sing Mimì for the 50th anniversary, NBC Symphony broadcast of La bohème, the premiere of which he had conducted in 1896. Following the success of that undertaking, he requested her talents again, as the consumptive Violetta for their classic performance of La traviata, broadcast on national radio on December 1 and 8, 1946. While the live recording has its faults, it was a classic performance shared with a wide audience.

The liveliness of the tempi of this performance is startling, especially for the first-act party scene. Despite the demands of broadcast time limitations and live performance, Albanese gracefully fulfills the technical demands of her big scene at the end. "Maria Callas once asked me how I ever got through it, but Toscanini wanted it that way," Albanese later recalled. "It should be like champagne," he said. I complained to him, and he said, 'You can do it.' Before I sang the part, I went to a hospital to study the behavior of people with tuberculosis and I learned that sometimes they can be hysterical."

She recorded prodigiously for RCA Victor. Among her recordings are Bizet's Carmen under the direction of Fritz Reiner, with Risë Stevens and Jan Peerce (1951) and Puccini's Manon Lescaut with Jussi Bjorling and Robert Merrill, conducted by Jonel Perlea (1954).

Soprano Teresa Stratas has been quoted as crediting a Metropolitan Opera performance of La traviata starring Albanese at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, with motivating her toward a singing career.

Albanese is chairman of the The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, founded in 1974 and dedicated to assisting young artists and singers. She also serves as a trustee of the Bagby Foundation. She works with the Juilliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and Marymount Manhattan College, and conducts master classes throughout the world.