Virginia Zeani
Virginia Zeani Commendatore OMRI[1] (born Virginia Zehan; 21 October 1925 – 20 March 2023) was a Romanian-born opera singer who sang leading soprano roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America.
Virginia Zeani
20 March 2023 (aged 97)
- Opera singer
- vocal pedagogue
1948–1982
1
- Order of Merit of the Italian Republic – Commander
1965 - Order of the Star of Romania – Knight
2016
As a singer, she was known for her dramatic intensity and the beauty, wide range, and suppleness of her voice, which allowed her to sing a repertoire of 69 roles ranging from the heroines in belcanto operas by Rossini and Donizetti to those of Wagner, Puccini and Verdi. She also created roles in several 20th-century operas, including Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites.
Zeani made her professional debut in 1948 as Violetta in La traviata, which would become one of her signature roles; she performed this role over 640 times.[2]
After her retirement from the stage in 1982, she became a well-known voice teacher. She was married to the Italian bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni from 1957 until his death in 1991. They both taught at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music for many years (and continued to teach singing privately afterwards).[3][4][5][6][7][8] She spent her last years in Palm Beach County, Florida.
Recordings[edit]
Zeani's recorded legacy largely rests on the approximately 60 "pirate" and "off-air" recordings of full-length operas made in the course of her career. She made very few studio recordings—Tosca, La traviata and a Verdi–Puccini recital released on LP by the Romanian Electrecord label, and a two-LP set of Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, and Puccini arias on the Decca label, recorded when Zeani was in her early 30s. In 2014, Decca reissued the LPs on compact disk in their "Most Wanted Recitals!" series.[17]
Honors[edit]
Zeani was made Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1965.[14] In her native Romania she received the Royal Decoration of Nihil Sine Deo in 2011 and was made a Knight of the Order of the Star of Romania in 2016.[18][19] She has also been the recipient of numerous opera awards, including the Puccini Award from the Fondazione Festival Pucciniano in 1992.[20][14][11]