Ebe Stignani
Surely, hers was the most voluminous voice among the Italian mezzo sopranos, and the most even in scale throughout its range. Every utterance spoke to a dignity of expression and a clarity of technique that has rarely, if ever, been heard. Ebe Stignani knew from the outset that she could have been a most imposing dramatic soprano, but she chose, for good reason, to become the most famous exponent of gypsies, embittered princesses and abandoned lovers in her time.
Stignani was born in Naples on 10 July, 1903 (the year has also been reported as 1904 and 1907), an only child, and at the age of ten was enrolled at the Conseratorio di San Pietro a Majella to study the piano. Part of her curriculum included choral singing and it was during this time that her extraordinary natural talents were discovered. Various documents declare that she graduated from the conservatory in July of 1925 and that she debuted at the Teatro San Carlo later in the year. However, the facts are, that she debuted as "Zephira" in Cavaliere della Rosa at that theater on 6 January, 1925 with Iva Pacetti, and that she sang Maddalena in Rigoletto on 23 January. If we assume the date of her graduation to be correct, she had also sung Amneris, Meg in Falstaff, Glorianda in Jacquerie, Laldomine in Cena delle Beffe, Adalgisa in Norma with Mazzoleni at the San Carlo, and she had traveled to Firenze for a debut as Amneris prior to receiving her degree. For lack of definitive evidence I will suggest that she graduated, instead, in July of 1924.
In any case, on 12 December 1925 Ebe appeared at Bari’s Teatro Piccini in Norma with Tina Poli Randaccio and her year ended at Bari with a concert at the Associazione della Stampa. She was recognized from the outset as an outstanding artist, and served no real apprenticeship before being welcomed into the first rank of Italian artists. The extremely important Teatro La Fenice of Venice presented Ebe in both Norma and Aida in January of 1926. Vera Amerighi Rutili was her foil in both operas and each was feted to a serata di gala during the engagement.
In April, Ebe returned to Naples for Azucena and the Principessa in Adriana Lecouvreur and for a concert at her alma mater. In September, she appeared in an all star revival of Falstaff at Busseto again in the role of Meg. Arturo Toscanini conducted the revival and it is said that "the maestro’s jaw dropped, in awe of the voice he was hearing for the first time". He immediately engaged Stignani for La Scala and on 12 October she debuted under his leadership in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. On the 17th, Toscanini repeated the concert at Turin’s Teatro Region and on 28 November Ebe made her opera debut at La Scala as Mara in Debora e Jaele. The headlines though, waited until her first Eboli on 22 December. Bianca Scacciati, Trantoul, Carlo Galeffi and Tancredi Pasero were all praised for their contributions, as was the conductor, Antonino Votto, but it was the Neapolitan mezzo who walked away with the honors. Her triumph was complete, and she was, from that day forward La Scala’s and Italy’s reigning mezzo. It is no exaggeration to state that there was simply no competition until she decided to relinquish some of her roles in the early fifties. The season at Milan continued with Annetta in Il Franco Cacciatore (Freischutz), Amneris, Gutrune in Il Crepuscolo degli Dei (Gotterdammerung) with Frida Leider, and Laura in La Gioconda with Giannina Arangi Lombardi, Francesco Merli, Benvenuto Franci and Pasero. With each new role the praise became longer and louder and Ebe had already achieved international notoriety by word of mouth and newspaper articles. It was time to prepare for her first engagement outside of Italy, a debut at the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires.
The Colon chose to present Stignani in a stellar revival of Norma on 25 May 1927. She, Claudia Muzio, Giacomo Lauri Volpi and Tancredi Pasero brought only superlatives from critics and audiences and Gina Marinuzzi was considered among the greatest conductors to have ever graced the podium of the theater. Ebe basked in her success, but there was another who reigned supreme in Buenos Aires for the length of her career, Luisa Bertana, and she was assigned all of the other mezzo roles, as was her pattern. Stignani was offered only one other role in her first season, Hansel in the Humperdinck opera. The delightful Lina Romelli romped with her for five performances and then Ebe waited for her next opera until the company arrived at Sao Paolo in August. While she was in Buenos Aires she did appear in concert with Toti Dal Monte, Muzio, Lauri Volpi, Carlo Galeffi and Pasero on 2 August. One can only wonder if all of her engagements have been documented, since it would seem that she stayed at the Argentinian capital for nearly weeks at a time without stepping onto a stage. At Sao Paolo’s Teatro Municipal Ebe sang all of the Bertana roles, Madelon in Andrea Chenier, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Azucena, this last, partnered by Muzio, Lauri Volpi, Benvenuto Franci and Pasero.
On 27 December, Ebe again sang Annetta in Der Freischutz at La Scala and on 22 February 1928 she repeated Gutrune at the Milan theater. Her Scala season ended with Maddalena, Meg and Eboli after which she traveled to Chile where, on 16 August she debuted at the Municipal as Maddalena to enormous receptions. Her other roles were Hansel and the Principessa di Bouillon with Cobelli, Dino Borgioli and Conati. Appearances as Hansel and the Principessa at Valparaiso completed her season in Chile. On 17 November she sang in La Forza del Destino at La Scala with Bianca Scacciati, Merli, Franci and Pasero and on the 28thshe sang the Mother in Fra Gherardo. On New Year’s Day 1929, Rosetta Pampanini, Pertile, Galeffi and Antonio Righetti joined Ebe in an all star production of Lohengrin, and on 9 February she appeared as Cathos in Le Preziose Ridicole. The Rome Reale engaged Ebe for Il Trovatore which she sang there for the first time on 25 April with Muzio, Renato Zanelli, and his brother, Carlo Morelli. On the 30th she appeared there with Giovanni Martinelli and Muzio in La Forza del Destino and on 5 May she sang Preziosilla in Florence with Iva Pacetti, Merli, and Armando Borgioli. Later in the month she sang in Norma at the Comunale with both Muzio and Amerighi Rutili. Ebe’s only summer appearances were as Preziosilla at Rimini and on 22 December she returned to La Scala in Forza, an opera repeated at Rome three weeks later. At Rome she also sang Cathos and Brangaene before traveling to her Native Naples for Aida with Arangi Lombardi, Merli and Enrico Molinari and Trovatore with Arangi, Lauri Volpi and Molinari. At La Scala she repeated Cathos, Azucena and appeared as Marina in Boris Godunov for the first time Feodor Chaliap sang the title role in two of her four performances. After performances of Lohengrin at Florence, Ebe debuted at the Verona Arena on 2 August as Marina. Her protagonist on this occasion was the celebrated Ezio Pinza. The remainder of 1930 was spent at Milan, where she sang a concert at the Sala del Conservatorio and then returned to La Scala for Brangaene and Preziosilla. It was clear by now that Ebe Stigani had a very keen and deliberate sense of the path she wished her career to take. She was singing no more than about forty performances a year, very carefully spaced, and only at theaters and in roles of her choosing.
Ebe was fond of quoting "The voice is like money, when it has been spent, it cannot be retrieved" when approached with appealing offers that she felt would shorten her career. She continued to appear, on average, fewer than forty times a year, a rarity in any age. As in 1930, she devoted a large portion of the year to La Scala, appearing in Aida with Scacciati, Merli, Galeffi and Righetti, Boris Godunov, again with Chaliapin, Gotterdammerung, Norma with Scacciati and Boito’s Nerone. And, as in 1930, she took a several month rest before singing in Norma at Bergamo in late October. On 19 November, Ebe debuted at Bologna’s Comunale in La Forza del Destino and the production was terminatd after the fourth performance, when, on the 28th, there was a fire in the auditorium. On 26 December, Ebe returned to La Scala for Norma with Scacciati, Pertile and Nazzareno de Angeles, and so her year ended.
The winter of 1932 found Stignani at Parma for Norma and La Forza del Destino and later in the season at Rome for Brangaene and later, Adalgisa to the Norma of Rosa Raisa. In April, Ebe returned to Florence for Norma and again left the stage for six months of rest. When she returned to the stage in October it was with Italian Radio, and the rest of the year was spent with radio transmissions for Turin and Rome. She sang in Mignon, Ballo in Maschera and Aida at both cities and in Fata Malerba and Prince Igor at Rome.
1933 opened with Lohengrin at La Scala. The all star cast of Maria Caniglia, Pertile, Gaetano Viviani and De Angelis was conducted by Sergio Failoni. On 11 February Ebe debuted at Genoa’s Carlo Felice in La Gioconda with Gina Cigna under Marinuzzi’s baton, and after Don Quixote and Cimarosa’s Impresario in Angustie at Turin, she returned to the Carlo Felice for Linda di Chamounix and in late March, Aida with Cigna and Pertile. Il Corriere Mercantile stated "Ebe Stignan,..regal of gesture, revealed as Amneris, a mezzosoprano of justly great fame". At Florence Ebe appeared in Nabucco with Cigna and, on 4 May in the legendary revival of Spontini’s La Vestale with Rosa Ponselle, whose Italian debut and farewell it was after two performances. Ferrara and Parma saw Ebe as Azucena before she returned to Buenos Aires. Her season at the Colon was again very short, encompassing only two operas, Khovancina and La Forza del Destino, this latter with Muzio and Gigli. At Sao Paolo she sang in Norma with Muzio and at Rio de Janeiro she sang in Lohengrin, Norma and L’Amico Fritz. On 10 October she debuted at Berlin in Aida with Arangi Lombardi, Franco Battaglia and Giacomo Rimini and two days later she sang in Il Trovatore with the same cast. As was Ebe’s pattern, the year ended at La Scala, this time in Nabucco with Cigna and Galeffi, and in Il Trovatore with Pacetti, Lauri Volpi and Giuseppe Danise. For the first time since her debut season, Ebe had sung more than fifty performances in one year.
L’Ambrosiano wrote "Ebe Stignani, the truest mezzonsoprano today, gave us a most admirable Azucena. The sorrow of the "zingara" came through in her generous singing, above all in the second act "racconto", the duet with Manrico and in the finale…."
Her Scala season continued with La Favorita on 18 January 1934. Pertile, Danise and Pasero were her celebrated partners. After a revival of La Gioconda with Cigna, Bruna Castagna, Allesandro Zilliani, Galeffi and Fernando Autori, Ebe traveled to Rome for performances of Aida and Lohengrin. At Venice’s Teatro La Fenice she sang in Aida with Arangi Lombardi; at Parma she appeared as Leonora de Guzman, and at Rome she appeared in a radio broadcast of Norma and in another at the Piazza Adriana before sailing to South America. Ebe visited only Rio de Janeiro where she appeared in La Favorita, La Gioconda with Cigna, Maria Tudor, Aida, and Il Trovatore. In November, Ebe sang in Norma at Ravenna and on the 26th, at La Scala, she appeared in a gala production of Ponchielli’s Il Figliuol Prodigo with Cigna, Antonio Melandri, Carlo Tagliabue and Pasero. Victor de Sabata conducted the revival, which commemorated the composer’s centenary and was hailed in newspapers throughout Italy.
The winter of 1935 found Ebe at Piacenza for Norma, at La Scala for Boris Godunov, Respighi’s La Fiamma, Beethoven’s Symphony number Nine, and L’Orfeo, and at Bagnacavallo, her ancestral home, for Mignon. In the spring, she visited Pisa for Norma, Florence for Mose and the Manzoni Requiem, Lecce for Mignon with Margherita Carosio and Tito Schipa, and in June, Ebe debuted at Paris and Brussels in the Manzoni Requiem with Caniglia, Marcato and Pinza under Serafin’s direction. Paris’ L’Excelsior observed "Among the vocal quartet, an exceptional vocalist was revealed, Ebe Stignani". On their way home, she and Cigna appeared in Norma at Zurich. Ebe’s summer schedule was again very light with a single appearance as Aida at Florence, three performances of Norma at Catania and another four at the Verona Arena. In September, Stignani closed the Carro di Tespi tour at Rome in Norma, with her almost constant partner, Cigna. After another break for rest and study, on 11 November, at Alessandria, Ebe sang Carmen for the first time, appearing with Dora Dori, Tafuro and Apollo Granforte. Later in the month she returned to Bologna for Norma and Don Carlo, both starring Cigna, Merli and Pasero, and her year ended at La Scala with a revival of Lohengrin in which Caniglia, Tassinari and Adami Corradetti shared the role of Elsa.
Ebe Stignani continued to appear at the most important theaters in Italy and South America; in the winter and spring of 1936, Parma presented her as Carmen and Amneris, and in the Manzoni Requiem, and at La Scala she sang in Samson et Dalila, La Gioconda and the Requiem. Rome saw her as Brangaene, and Bologna in the Requiem. On 3 July, the Carro di Tespi presented Ebe, Caniglia, Merli and Inghilleri in Il Trovatore at the Piazza della Signoria of Florence before some twenty five thousand people and in August, Ebe returned to Rio de Janeiro for Norma, La Gioconda, Samson et Dalila and Aida. A Nacao reported "We welcome with joy the return of this celebrated artist; an Adalgisa which la Stignani has presented with nobility both of voice and of acting". Of her Laura, the same newspaper declared "Ebe Stignani, absent for two years, revealed herself again as a grand artist; her Laura is a dominating figure". Cigna sang all of the soprano roles during the visit and received equally fine reviews. The act two duet from Gioconda received particular and unanimous praise. In the autumn, Bologna again hosted Ebe in a stellar production of Aida with Caniglia, Masini and Basiola and Rome engaged her for Falstaff, Samson et Dalila with Merlia and Granforte, Lohengrin with Gigli and Boris Godunov. Following the premiere of the Saint Saen’s opera, Ebe was called to the box of Maria of Savoy to receive her personal congratulations before a huge audience. There was frenzy in the theater during the brief homage. February and March of 1937 found Ebe at La Scala for Ballo in Maschera, Lucrezia, the Manzoni Requiem and Aida.
Stignani debuted at London’s Covent Garden on 7 May in Aida with Cigna, Martinelli and Formichi and stayed for four unexceptional performances; one critic referring to the revival as "efficient". However, there was a "gala performance" on 12 May in honor of the Coronation of George V1. At Munich Ebe appeared in the Manzoni Requiem and in Aida, and a week later, the same works were presented at Berlin with the same casts, Cigna, Gigli, and Pasero. Nava sang Amonasro in both cities.
In July Ebe sang in La Gioconda at Genoa’s Piazza del Governo before a crowd of twelve thousand and later in the month she appeared at Milan’s Castello Sflorzesco as Carmen. Her usual two month vacation preceded a long series of broadcast for Italian Radio: Lohengrin, Norma, Don Carlo, Adriana Lecouvreur and Il Trovatore. Ebe’s year ended at Rome’s Reale in Il Trovatore with Caniglia Lauri Volpi, Basiola and Vaghi under Serafin’s direction, and 1938 began at Genoa’s Carlo Felice with Dalila. Il Secolo XIX reported "Ebe Stignani was magnificent; there is simply no other word".
At La Scala, Ebe sang in La Gioconda, Cavalleria Rusticana, The Manzoni Requiem and Aida, and, during the Milan season she appeared at the Rome Reale as Laura. In May, at the Adriano of Rome, Ebe sang in the Requiem with Caniglia, Gigli and De Angelis, whose final performance of the massive work, it was. At the Foro Mussolini on the eighth, she appeared in a gala Fascist celebration. Ebe’s contribution was Ortrud in act two of Lohengrin. Florence saw her as Amneris and in the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Rome engaged her for Cavalleria Rusticana and on 5 June at that city’s radio station she sang Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri. Later in the month, the Carro di Tespi tour presented her as Amneris at Frosinone and Rome, and the huge spaces of Caracalla hosted her in La Gioconda, Aida and Lohengrin. At the Verona Arena Ebe appeared as Fenena and Leonora de Guzman and for Italian radio she sang in Mascagni’s Parisina and in Boito’s Nerone.
Stignani chose San Francisco for her United States debut. On 17 October she overwhelmed a sold out house as Santuzza and on 12 November she repeated the role at Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Examiner reported – "Ebe Stignani combined a magnificent opulence of voice with a modest stage presence". It also commented on the enormous enthusiasm with which she was received. The year ended at Rome with Oberon and at the Carlo Felice as Eboli. Margherita Grandi, Merli, Galeffi and Pasero completed the stellar ensemble and were greeted with unrestrained demonstrations after each performance.
Ebe was to continue her parade of triumphs for another twenty years, so it would become a tedious redundancy to list every performance. I will, therefore, concentrate on new theaters and new roles. In 1939, Ebe appeared at Trieste as Azucena, at Mantua in La Favorita, at Faenza as Santuzza, at Pesaro in Favorita with her usual compliment of star studded revivals at La Scala, Rome, Naples, Florence and Bologna. She also returned to London for Il Trovatore and Aida. Though her reviews were anything but undernourished her great success at that theater would wait for another decade and a half. The Times referred to her Azucena as an "authentic success". A further commentary noted that "the rich quality of her voice….was particularly appreciated in the judgment scene".
In 1940, Ebe added three new works to her repertoire: Semiramide’s Arsace at Florence, Cenerentola for Rome’s Radio Station and Perosi’s Transitus Animae at La Scala. The critics were unanimous in their praise of all three assumptions, heaping special superlatives, one upon another, for the "grandeur of her singing" at Florence. The great musicologist, Guido Pannain, termed it "a lesson in singing".
In April 1941, Ebe traveled to Berlin for performances of Ballo in Maschera and Norma, and near year’s end she added two new works to her repertoire; Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater at Turin and, on 3 December, Mozart’s Requiem at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli at Rome. The all Italian cast of Caniglia, Gigli and Pasero under the baton of Victor de Sabata received huge praise from the critics and the next evening the work was repeated with Pia Tassinari, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Italo Tajo, with equal success. But, the main event of Ebe’s life was her marriage to Alfredo Sciti on 18 October at Imola. Like Ebe’s, his family were natives of Bagnacavallo, though he had been born in Sicily. Signore Sciti, while a huge opera fan, was not a fan of travel, and his inclination, combined with the ravages of a world conflict in full force limited Ebe’s appearances to Italy in 1942. She continued to add new works, though she was cutting back on a not very heavy schedule. At La Scala she sang in Gluck’s Orfeo for the first time and at Bologna she joined Caniglia, Giovanni Voyer and Pasero in Rossini’s Petite Missa Solenelle.
In June 1943, after performances of Cavalleria Rusticana, Carmen and Don Carlo at Budapest, Ebe left the lyric stage. She gave birth in May, 1944, and the conditions of her life became extraordinarily difficult. German officers occupied the larger part of the Sciti villa at Imola and the family removed themselves and her piano to Montecatone, where they remained until the end of hostilities. The piano never made it. Along with many other possessions from the villa, it was confiscated and removed to Germany.
It was not until June of 1945 that Ebe returned to the stage. The Teatro Comunale of Bologna mounted a production of Calvalleria Rusticana, and audiences were in awe of the freshness of a voice that had been stilled for a full two years. Il Resto di Carlino – "Cavalleria Rusticana has found in Ebe Stignani an exceptional interpreter, in which she displayed her beautiful voice…... The role of Santuzza was exposed in a passionate manner, but without excess". The Teatro Lirico of Milan presented Ebe in the Manzoni Requiem on 19 June. The Teatro alla Scala had been destroyed by bombs during the war, and it was at the Lirico that the company performed for two years. The rest of the year was spent at Naples and at Rome. Her home theater presented her in Aida, Carmen, La Gioconda, Norma and Mignon while Rome mounted productions of Carmen and Gioconda at Caracalla and Boito’s Nerone and Ballo in Maschera at the Reale. The Boito opera was the vehicle of Aureliano Pertile’s farewell to opera; he who had sung in the World Premiere. The final performance found thousands of Romans clamoring for tickets before the performance, and, at the end there were enormous demonstrations of affection in the streets around the theater as the entourage appeared at the stage door.
In 1946 Ebe debuted at the Sao Carlo of Lisbon in Norma with Caniglia, Gigli and Neri to stupendous, clamorous ovations, and her season continued with Falstaff and a gala concert in which she was joined by Caniglia, Renato and Beniamino Gigli and Gino Bechi. Ebe was to return to the Sao Carlo for a virtually unprecedented six consecutive seasons. At Madrid’s Teatro Albeniz, Ebe sang in Aida and Falstaff before returning to Caracalla for Norma with Caniglia and Merli, followed by Aida and Cavalleria Rusticana . In September Ebe debuted at Geneva in Norma and in October, at Catania’s Massimo Bellini in La Favorita. The Garibaldi of Palermo also presented her in the Donzetti work and in Cavalleria Rusticana.
La Scala had reopened in May and Ebe appeared in the rebuilt theater for the first time on 29 January 1947 as Dalila to huge, almost hysterical ovations. A review of the revival contains the following quote " For (Stignani) the music always comes first….. She always sings with the orchestra, never against it. We salute Ebe Stignani, the "prima" singer of the day, and certainly among the most important of our time."
After engagements at Genoa and Turin, Ebe returned to Lisbon for La Favorita, Aida, and two concerts, the first with Caniglia, Mario Filippeschi and Giulio Neri, the other with Caniglia, Fedora Barbieri, Miriam Pirazzini and Elizabetta Barbato. Of Stignani’s Amneris, O Seculo declared " Ebe Stignani, who sang the role of Amneris with a prodigious voice, generated storms of applause". Ebe appeared in Paris at the Theatre des Champs Elysees on 24 May in the role of Azucena and on the 30th, she sang La Favorita. Both assignments were rapturously received by sold out houses. Paris Presse headlined its review of Il Trovatore – "The Golden voice of Ebe Stignani". At La Scala she sang in Orfeo ed Euridice, then traveled to Zurich for Ballo in Maschera and Norma before returning to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo for La Gioconda and Aida. In October at Rome, Ebe sang in a radio broadcast of Handel’s Rinaldo and in November she debuted at the Barcelona Liceo in Norma with Caniglia. On 4 December she sang the role of Orfeo and the Spanish audience reacted with a frenzy hardly known, even to that most demonstrative audience. El Noticiero Universal – "After the famous "Che faro", Ebe Stignani received the greatest of ovacions. There are not enough superlatives." Her season at the Liceo ended with Azucena, as did her engagements in 1947.
1948 began with Norma, Cavalleria Rusticana and Aida at La Scala, and continued with a month long engagement at Lisbon, where she sang in Il Trovatore, Cavalleria, Sansone e Dalila, Aida, and Norma, as well as a concert with Caniglia, Alda Noni, B.Gigli, Mario del Monaco, Cesare Valletti and Gino Bechi. After several engagements in Italy, Ebe returned to San Francisco, where, on 14 Septmenber, she sang Quickly in a cast that included Regina Resnik (then a soprano), Licia Albanese, Herta Glaz, Salvatore Baccaloni and Robert Weede. At Sacramento, she sang Santuzza before reprising the role at San Francisco and she ended her season at the War Memorial Opera House in La Gioconda. Ebe then traveled throughout the United States and into Canada on a concert tour, with additional performances of Falstaff, Il Trovatore, La Forza del Destino and La Gioconda in Los Angeles, and Il Trovatore and La Gioconda at Philadelphia. The tour took Ebe as far north as Winnipeg, Toronto and Trois Rivieres in Canada and as far east as New York City where she debuted at Carnegie Hall on 13 December accompanied by Paul Ulanowsky. The World Telegram headlined its review "Ebe Stignani superlative at Carnegie".
The winter and spring of 1949 were spent in Italy and Lisbon, and on 6 August she returned to the Verona Arena for Il Trovatore with Adriana Guerrini, Jose Soler and Torres. In October Ebe returned to North America for another exhausting concert and opera tour, appearing in such far flung places as Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Winston Salem, North Carolina, Dallas, Miami and Edmonton, Canada. Ebe sang in Il Trovatore at Hartford and at Philadelphia. Her Carnegie Hall recital was not universally praised, the New York Times declaring – "Her singing on this occasion was hardly up to the high standard awaited by so celebrated an artist". On the other hand, the Philadelphia Bulletin reported, after her concert at the Academy of Music – "The impact of a voice of this caliber produces an affect on an audience that is quite special and apart". The tour continued into January 1950 and ended at Worcester, Massachusetts on the 31st.
Ebe’s return to Italy anticipated one of the most important events in her career, her first collaboration with Maria Menighini Callas with whom she sang in "Norma" at the Rome Opera on 23 February. Galliano Masini and Giulio Neri contributed mightily to a performance that was headline news throughout Italy. Il Tempo "To hear Ebe Stignani is to know that she has no equal". The newspaper further reported that the presence of the "Greek" created a tense situation between her admirers and those who did not consider themselves "callasiani". However, it was an unprecedented success for all involved. Ebe’s season continued with six assumptions at Lisbon, including Rossini’s "Stabat Mater" with Renata Tebaldi, and, after her usual visits to Naples, Florence, Milan, Genoa and Bologna, Stignani sang in the Manzoni Requiem withTebaldi, Poggi and Rossi Lemeni at Naples’ Teatro San Carlo and later at the Basilica di San Francesco di Paola, the site of Enrico Caruso’s funeral.
In 1951 Ebe added the role of Cuniza in "Oberto Conte di San Bonifaccio" at La Scala and she sang the Manzoni Requiem at Paris, Venice, Perugia, Catania and London. The Venice engagement presented the particularly intriguing cast of Elizabeth Shwarzkopf, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Cesare Siepi under the leadership of Victor de Sabata. In January of 1952 Ebe sang with Callas in "Norma", this time at La Scala, and on 8 November they appeared again in the legendary revival of the Bellini work at Covent Garden. The performance is well known to collectors around the world as one of the finest performances ever preserved for posterity. Both were in stupendous voice and the ovations after the two great duets are as memorable as was the vocalism. The "Manchester Guardian" – "Ebe Stignani sang with a classic grandeur, a beautiful voice, perfect intonation and rich dramatic accents. At the end of the opera there were over a dozen curtain calls, but Stignani did not appear". It was reported that during the final dress rehearsal and again at the first interval on opening night, Madama Callas had made sarcastic remarks about "one of her colleagues", variously reported as directed at Giulio Neri and at Stignani, herself. One reported suggested that Callas had snarled the word "giovinetta" toward the forty nine year old mezzo. In any case, Ebe determined to express her displeasure by excluding herself from the evening’s final festivities. Her music over, she retreated to her dressing room, changed, and returned to her hotel. Words were never exchanged and the four remaining performances went off without incident. On 12 December they again shared the stage when La Scala mounted a production of "La Gioconda" with Di Stefano, Tagiabue and Tajo under Votto’s baton. During the year, there had been other significant engagements for Ebe: Amneris at Monte Carlo, Adalgisa at Naples, Eboli at Turin, Samson et Dalila at Berne and the Manzoni Requiem at both Zurich and Geneva. Everywhere she appeared, Ebe’s reviews expressed awe at the freshness of a voice that "shows no wear after more than a quarter century upon the stage". At Berne, one review stated that "Ebe Stignani has a voice with the strength and range of a dramatic soprano and the allure and technique of a leggiera". Indeed!
1953 found Ebe in triumph at La Scala in "Il Trovatore", again with Callas whose star shone as brightly, and at the Teatro Colon as Orfeo, Amneris and Eboli and at Barcelona as Amneris in the company of Caterina Mancini and Mario del Monaco. In 1954 she appeared as Eboli at La Scala in the only production of "Don Carlo" that Maria Callas ever sang and she returned to Buenos Aires for "La Favorita" and "Norma" as well as to London for the Manzoni Requiem with Joan Hammond, Gigli and Rossi Lemeni. On 7 December she, Callas and Corelli opened La Scala in the Visconti production of "La Vestale" to one of the greatest ovations in that theater’s history. The performance has never been available in good sound, but one can still gather a recitation of astounding opulence and grandeur from all three principals. On 4 May 1955, Stignani debuted at Dublin’s Gaiety Theater in "Norma" with Mancini, and after appearances at Ravenna, Rome, London and Naples, Ebe returned to Chicago, where, on 4 November she sang in "Il Trovatore" with Callas, Bjorling and Bastianini. It was a headline story, not only in Chicago but throught the United States and some who attended have declared Stignani’s voice the most naturally effulgent tone they ever heard. The Chicago Sun Times headlined its review "Callas bows to Gypsy in "Il Trovatore".
In 1956, Ebe sang in "La Gioconda" at Florence with the magnificent Anita Cerquetti, and later she appeared in "Un Ballo in Maschera" at La Scala with Antonietta Stella, Tagliavini and Giuseppe Taddei. She returned to Naples for "Aida" and "Falstaff" which was her operatic farewell to her home town, and at year’s end she sang in "Sansone e Dalila" at Parma.
On 6 January 1957, she appeared in "Un Ballo in Maschera" at Florence, a performance preserved on CD, and one of incredible grandeur for her performance as well as that of Cerquetti. London again saw her in the company of Callas in "Norma", a performance that generated such a torrent of applause that Mira O Norma had to be encored, an event not witnessed at that theater in anyone’s memory. Dublin presented Ebe in the Manzoni Requiem and she ended the year with a concert at Limerick.
In 1958 she appeared at London’s Drury Lane as Azucena and on 12 April she sang in her last production when she appeared as Amneris at Dublin with Gloria Davy. After three performances, Ebe closed the book on her career and on her public life, retreating to her villa at Imola where she would remain until her death on 6 October 1974. The Teatro Comunale of Florence and La Scala were only two of the theaters that mounted testimonial evenings for Ebe, and she graciously accepted their invitations, but her life was among the most private of any celebrated artist of her time. From Rasponi’s "The Last Prima Donnas" - "Parties, receptions, dinners are not an escape for me as they represent a considerable effort. They expect to meet an extraordinary person, all these people who clamor for an introduction, but there is nothing extraordinary about me except the voice, and that they must come to the theater to hear. ….If I had not married and had a son, who is the joy of my life, I would almost say I lived the existence of a nun. …..What is more wonderful than a heart which opens up to the sound of a voice that is dear? I cannot think of anything. And I would like to think that the hearts of the people who listen to me, experience just this very sensation. If I am able to do this, then I am content, for then my small mission in this tormented world we live in is done".
© Bob Rideout
Stignani was born in Naples on 10 July, 1903 (the year has also been reported as 1904 and 1907), an only child, and at the age of ten was enrolled at the Conseratorio di San Pietro a Majella to study the piano. Part of her curriculum included choral singing and it was during this time that her extraordinary natural talents were discovered. Various documents declare that she graduated from the conservatory in July of 1925 and that she debuted at the Teatro San Carlo later in the year. However, the facts are, that she debuted as "Zephira" in Cavaliere della Rosa at that theater on 6 January, 1925 with Iva Pacetti, and that she sang Maddalena in Rigoletto on 23 January. If we assume the date of her graduation to be correct, she had also sung Amneris, Meg in Falstaff, Glorianda in Jacquerie, Laldomine in Cena delle Beffe, Adalgisa in Norma with Mazzoleni at the San Carlo, and she had traveled to Firenze for a debut as Amneris prior to receiving her degree. For lack of definitive evidence I will suggest that she graduated, instead, in July of 1924.
In any case, on 12 December 1925 Ebe appeared at Bari’s Teatro Piccini in Norma with Tina Poli Randaccio and her year ended at Bari with a concert at the Associazione della Stampa. She was recognized from the outset as an outstanding artist, and served no real apprenticeship before being welcomed into the first rank of Italian artists. The extremely important Teatro La Fenice of Venice presented Ebe in both Norma and Aida in January of 1926. Vera Amerighi Rutili was her foil in both operas and each was feted to a serata di gala during the engagement.
In April, Ebe returned to Naples for Azucena and the Principessa in Adriana Lecouvreur and for a concert at her alma mater. In September, she appeared in an all star revival of Falstaff at Busseto again in the role of Meg. Arturo Toscanini conducted the revival and it is said that "the maestro’s jaw dropped, in awe of the voice he was hearing for the first time". He immediately engaged Stignani for La Scala and on 12 October she debuted under his leadership in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. On the 17th, Toscanini repeated the concert at Turin’s Teatro Region and on 28 November Ebe made her opera debut at La Scala as Mara in Debora e Jaele. The headlines though, waited until her first Eboli on 22 December. Bianca Scacciati, Trantoul, Carlo Galeffi and Tancredi Pasero were all praised for their contributions, as was the conductor, Antonino Votto, but it was the Neapolitan mezzo who walked away with the honors. Her triumph was complete, and she was, from that day forward La Scala’s and Italy’s reigning mezzo. It is no exaggeration to state that there was simply no competition until she decided to relinquish some of her roles in the early fifties. The season at Milan continued with Annetta in Il Franco Cacciatore (Freischutz), Amneris, Gutrune in Il Crepuscolo degli Dei (Gotterdammerung) with Frida Leider, and Laura in La Gioconda with Giannina Arangi Lombardi, Francesco Merli, Benvenuto Franci and Pasero. With each new role the praise became longer and louder and Ebe had already achieved international notoriety by word of mouth and newspaper articles. It was time to prepare for her first engagement outside of Italy, a debut at the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires.
The Colon chose to present Stignani in a stellar revival of Norma on 25 May 1927. She, Claudia Muzio, Giacomo Lauri Volpi and Tancredi Pasero brought only superlatives from critics and audiences and Gina Marinuzzi was considered among the greatest conductors to have ever graced the podium of the theater. Ebe basked in her success, but there was another who reigned supreme in Buenos Aires for the length of her career, Luisa Bertana, and she was assigned all of the other mezzo roles, as was her pattern. Stignani was offered only one other role in her first season, Hansel in the Humperdinck opera. The delightful Lina Romelli romped with her for five performances and then Ebe waited for her next opera until the company arrived at Sao Paolo in August. While she was in Buenos Aires she did appear in concert with Toti Dal Monte, Muzio, Lauri Volpi, Carlo Galeffi and Pasero on 2 August. One can only wonder if all of her engagements have been documented, since it would seem that she stayed at the Argentinian capital for nearly weeks at a time without stepping onto a stage. At Sao Paolo’s Teatro Municipal Ebe sang all of the Bertana roles, Madelon in Andrea Chenier, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Azucena, this last, partnered by Muzio, Lauri Volpi, Benvenuto Franci and Pasero.
On 27 December, Ebe again sang Annetta in Der Freischutz at La Scala and on 22 February 1928 she repeated Gutrune at the Milan theater. Her Scala season ended with Maddalena, Meg and Eboli after which she traveled to Chile where, on 16 August she debuted at the Municipal as Maddalena to enormous receptions. Her other roles were Hansel and the Principessa di Bouillon with Cobelli, Dino Borgioli and Conati. Appearances as Hansel and the Principessa at Valparaiso completed her season in Chile. On 17 November she sang in La Forza del Destino at La Scala with Bianca Scacciati, Merli, Franci and Pasero and on the 28thshe sang the Mother in Fra Gherardo. On New Year’s Day 1929, Rosetta Pampanini, Pertile, Galeffi and Antonio Righetti joined Ebe in an all star production of Lohengrin, and on 9 February she appeared as Cathos in Le Preziose Ridicole. The Rome Reale engaged Ebe for Il Trovatore which she sang there for the first time on 25 April with Muzio, Renato Zanelli, and his brother, Carlo Morelli. On the 30th she appeared there with Giovanni Martinelli and Muzio in La Forza del Destino and on 5 May she sang Preziosilla in Florence with Iva Pacetti, Merli, and Armando Borgioli. Later in the month she sang in Norma at the Comunale with both Muzio and Amerighi Rutili. Ebe’s only summer appearances were as Preziosilla at Rimini and on 22 December she returned to La Scala in Forza, an opera repeated at Rome three weeks later. At Rome she also sang Cathos and Brangaene before traveling to her Native Naples for Aida with Arangi Lombardi, Merli and Enrico Molinari and Trovatore with Arangi, Lauri Volpi and Molinari. At La Scala she repeated Cathos, Azucena and appeared as Marina in Boris Godunov for the first time Feodor Chaliap sang the title role in two of her four performances. After performances of Lohengrin at Florence, Ebe debuted at the Verona Arena on 2 August as Marina. Her protagonist on this occasion was the celebrated Ezio Pinza. The remainder of 1930 was spent at Milan, where she sang a concert at the Sala del Conservatorio and then returned to La Scala for Brangaene and Preziosilla. It was clear by now that Ebe Stigani had a very keen and deliberate sense of the path she wished her career to take. She was singing no more than about forty performances a year, very carefully spaced, and only at theaters and in roles of her choosing.
Ebe was fond of quoting "The voice is like money, when it has been spent, it cannot be retrieved" when approached with appealing offers that she felt would shorten her career. She continued to appear, on average, fewer than forty times a year, a rarity in any age. As in 1930, she devoted a large portion of the year to La Scala, appearing in Aida with Scacciati, Merli, Galeffi and Righetti, Boris Godunov, again with Chaliapin, Gotterdammerung, Norma with Scacciati and Boito’s Nerone. And, as in 1930, she took a several month rest before singing in Norma at Bergamo in late October. On 19 November, Ebe debuted at Bologna’s Comunale in La Forza del Destino and the production was terminatd after the fourth performance, when, on the 28th, there was a fire in the auditorium. On 26 December, Ebe returned to La Scala for Norma with Scacciati, Pertile and Nazzareno de Angeles, and so her year ended.
The winter of 1932 found Stignani at Parma for Norma and La Forza del Destino and later in the season at Rome for Brangaene and later, Adalgisa to the Norma of Rosa Raisa. In April, Ebe returned to Florence for Norma and again left the stage for six months of rest. When she returned to the stage in October it was with Italian Radio, and the rest of the year was spent with radio transmissions for Turin and Rome. She sang in Mignon, Ballo in Maschera and Aida at both cities and in Fata Malerba and Prince Igor at Rome.
1933 opened with Lohengrin at La Scala. The all star cast of Maria Caniglia, Pertile, Gaetano Viviani and De Angelis was conducted by Sergio Failoni. On 11 February Ebe debuted at Genoa’s Carlo Felice in La Gioconda with Gina Cigna under Marinuzzi’s baton, and after Don Quixote and Cimarosa’s Impresario in Angustie at Turin, she returned to the Carlo Felice for Linda di Chamounix and in late March, Aida with Cigna and Pertile. Il Corriere Mercantile stated "Ebe Stignan,..regal of gesture, revealed as Amneris, a mezzosoprano of justly great fame". At Florence Ebe appeared in Nabucco with Cigna and, on 4 May in the legendary revival of Spontini’s La Vestale with Rosa Ponselle, whose Italian debut and farewell it was after two performances. Ferrara and Parma saw Ebe as Azucena before she returned to Buenos Aires. Her season at the Colon was again very short, encompassing only two operas, Khovancina and La Forza del Destino, this latter with Muzio and Gigli. At Sao Paolo she sang in Norma with Muzio and at Rio de Janeiro she sang in Lohengrin, Norma and L’Amico Fritz. On 10 October she debuted at Berlin in Aida with Arangi Lombardi, Franco Battaglia and Giacomo Rimini and two days later she sang in Il Trovatore with the same cast. As was Ebe’s pattern, the year ended at La Scala, this time in Nabucco with Cigna and Galeffi, and in Il Trovatore with Pacetti, Lauri Volpi and Giuseppe Danise. For the first time since her debut season, Ebe had sung more than fifty performances in one year.
L’Ambrosiano wrote "Ebe Stignani, the truest mezzonsoprano today, gave us a most admirable Azucena. The sorrow of the "zingara" came through in her generous singing, above all in the second act "racconto", the duet with Manrico and in the finale…."
Her Scala season continued with La Favorita on 18 January 1934. Pertile, Danise and Pasero were her celebrated partners. After a revival of La Gioconda with Cigna, Bruna Castagna, Allesandro Zilliani, Galeffi and Fernando Autori, Ebe traveled to Rome for performances of Aida and Lohengrin. At Venice’s Teatro La Fenice she sang in Aida with Arangi Lombardi; at Parma she appeared as Leonora de Guzman, and at Rome she appeared in a radio broadcast of Norma and in another at the Piazza Adriana before sailing to South America. Ebe visited only Rio de Janeiro where she appeared in La Favorita, La Gioconda with Cigna, Maria Tudor, Aida, and Il Trovatore. In November, Ebe sang in Norma at Ravenna and on the 26th, at La Scala, she appeared in a gala production of Ponchielli’s Il Figliuol Prodigo with Cigna, Antonio Melandri, Carlo Tagliabue and Pasero. Victor de Sabata conducted the revival, which commemorated the composer’s centenary and was hailed in newspapers throughout Italy.
The winter of 1935 found Ebe at Piacenza for Norma, at La Scala for Boris Godunov, Respighi’s La Fiamma, Beethoven’s Symphony number Nine, and L’Orfeo, and at Bagnacavallo, her ancestral home, for Mignon. In the spring, she visited Pisa for Norma, Florence for Mose and the Manzoni Requiem, Lecce for Mignon with Margherita Carosio and Tito Schipa, and in June, Ebe debuted at Paris and Brussels in the Manzoni Requiem with Caniglia, Marcato and Pinza under Serafin’s direction. Paris’ L’Excelsior observed "Among the vocal quartet, an exceptional vocalist was revealed, Ebe Stignani". On their way home, she and Cigna appeared in Norma at Zurich. Ebe’s summer schedule was again very light with a single appearance as Aida at Florence, three performances of Norma at Catania and another four at the Verona Arena. In September, Stignani closed the Carro di Tespi tour at Rome in Norma, with her almost constant partner, Cigna. After another break for rest and study, on 11 November, at Alessandria, Ebe sang Carmen for the first time, appearing with Dora Dori, Tafuro and Apollo Granforte. Later in the month she returned to Bologna for Norma and Don Carlo, both starring Cigna, Merli and Pasero, and her year ended at La Scala with a revival of Lohengrin in which Caniglia, Tassinari and Adami Corradetti shared the role of Elsa.
Ebe Stignani continued to appear at the most important theaters in Italy and South America; in the winter and spring of 1936, Parma presented her as Carmen and Amneris, and in the Manzoni Requiem, and at La Scala she sang in Samson et Dalila, La Gioconda and the Requiem. Rome saw her as Brangaene, and Bologna in the Requiem. On 3 July, the Carro di Tespi presented Ebe, Caniglia, Merli and Inghilleri in Il Trovatore at the Piazza della Signoria of Florence before some twenty five thousand people and in August, Ebe returned to Rio de Janeiro for Norma, La Gioconda, Samson et Dalila and Aida. A Nacao reported "We welcome with joy the return of this celebrated artist; an Adalgisa which la Stignani has presented with nobility both of voice and of acting". Of her Laura, the same newspaper declared "Ebe Stignani, absent for two years, revealed herself again as a grand artist; her Laura is a dominating figure". Cigna sang all of the soprano roles during the visit and received equally fine reviews. The act two duet from Gioconda received particular and unanimous praise. In the autumn, Bologna again hosted Ebe in a stellar production of Aida with Caniglia, Masini and Basiola and Rome engaged her for Falstaff, Samson et Dalila with Merlia and Granforte, Lohengrin with Gigli and Boris Godunov. Following the premiere of the Saint Saen’s opera, Ebe was called to the box of Maria of Savoy to receive her personal congratulations before a huge audience. There was frenzy in the theater during the brief homage. February and March of 1937 found Ebe at La Scala for Ballo in Maschera, Lucrezia, the Manzoni Requiem and Aida.
Stignani debuted at London’s Covent Garden on 7 May in Aida with Cigna, Martinelli and Formichi and stayed for four unexceptional performances; one critic referring to the revival as "efficient". However, there was a "gala performance" on 12 May in honor of the Coronation of George V1. At Munich Ebe appeared in the Manzoni Requiem and in Aida, and a week later, the same works were presented at Berlin with the same casts, Cigna, Gigli, and Pasero. Nava sang Amonasro in both cities.
In July Ebe sang in La Gioconda at Genoa’s Piazza del Governo before a crowd of twelve thousand and later in the month she appeared at Milan’s Castello Sflorzesco as Carmen. Her usual two month vacation preceded a long series of broadcast for Italian Radio: Lohengrin, Norma, Don Carlo, Adriana Lecouvreur and Il Trovatore. Ebe’s year ended at Rome’s Reale in Il Trovatore with Caniglia Lauri Volpi, Basiola and Vaghi under Serafin’s direction, and 1938 began at Genoa’s Carlo Felice with Dalila. Il Secolo XIX reported "Ebe Stignani was magnificent; there is simply no other word".
At La Scala, Ebe sang in La Gioconda, Cavalleria Rusticana, The Manzoni Requiem and Aida, and, during the Milan season she appeared at the Rome Reale as Laura. In May, at the Adriano of Rome, Ebe sang in the Requiem with Caniglia, Gigli and De Angelis, whose final performance of the massive work, it was. At the Foro Mussolini on the eighth, she appeared in a gala Fascist celebration. Ebe’s contribution was Ortrud in act two of Lohengrin. Florence saw her as Amneris and in the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Rome engaged her for Cavalleria Rusticana and on 5 June at that city’s radio station she sang Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri. Later in the month, the Carro di Tespi tour presented her as Amneris at Frosinone and Rome, and the huge spaces of Caracalla hosted her in La Gioconda, Aida and Lohengrin. At the Verona Arena Ebe appeared as Fenena and Leonora de Guzman and for Italian radio she sang in Mascagni’s Parisina and in Boito’s Nerone.
Stignani chose San Francisco for her United States debut. On 17 October she overwhelmed a sold out house as Santuzza and on 12 November she repeated the role at Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Examiner reported – "Ebe Stignani combined a magnificent opulence of voice with a modest stage presence". It also commented on the enormous enthusiasm with which she was received. The year ended at Rome with Oberon and at the Carlo Felice as Eboli. Margherita Grandi, Merli, Galeffi and Pasero completed the stellar ensemble and were greeted with unrestrained demonstrations after each performance.
Ebe was to continue her parade of triumphs for another twenty years, so it would become a tedious redundancy to list every performance. I will, therefore, concentrate on new theaters and new roles. In 1939, Ebe appeared at Trieste as Azucena, at Mantua in La Favorita, at Faenza as Santuzza, at Pesaro in Favorita with her usual compliment of star studded revivals at La Scala, Rome, Naples, Florence and Bologna. She also returned to London for Il Trovatore and Aida. Though her reviews were anything but undernourished her great success at that theater would wait for another decade and a half. The Times referred to her Azucena as an "authentic success". A further commentary noted that "the rich quality of her voice….was particularly appreciated in the judgment scene".
In 1940, Ebe added three new works to her repertoire: Semiramide’s Arsace at Florence, Cenerentola for Rome’s Radio Station and Perosi’s Transitus Animae at La Scala. The critics were unanimous in their praise of all three assumptions, heaping special superlatives, one upon another, for the "grandeur of her singing" at Florence. The great musicologist, Guido Pannain, termed it "a lesson in singing".
In April 1941, Ebe traveled to Berlin for performances of Ballo in Maschera and Norma, and near year’s end she added two new works to her repertoire; Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater at Turin and, on 3 December, Mozart’s Requiem at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli at Rome. The all Italian cast of Caniglia, Gigli and Pasero under the baton of Victor de Sabata received huge praise from the critics and the next evening the work was repeated with Pia Tassinari, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Italo Tajo, with equal success. But, the main event of Ebe’s life was her marriage to Alfredo Sciti on 18 October at Imola. Like Ebe’s, his family were natives of Bagnacavallo, though he had been born in Sicily. Signore Sciti, while a huge opera fan, was not a fan of travel, and his inclination, combined with the ravages of a world conflict in full force limited Ebe’s appearances to Italy in 1942. She continued to add new works, though she was cutting back on a not very heavy schedule. At La Scala she sang in Gluck’s Orfeo for the first time and at Bologna she joined Caniglia, Giovanni Voyer and Pasero in Rossini’s Petite Missa Solenelle.
In June 1943, after performances of Cavalleria Rusticana, Carmen and Don Carlo at Budapest, Ebe left the lyric stage. She gave birth in May, 1944, and the conditions of her life became extraordinarily difficult. German officers occupied the larger part of the Sciti villa at Imola and the family removed themselves and her piano to Montecatone, where they remained until the end of hostilities. The piano never made it. Along with many other possessions from the villa, it was confiscated and removed to Germany.
It was not until June of 1945 that Ebe returned to the stage. The Teatro Comunale of Bologna mounted a production of Calvalleria Rusticana, and audiences were in awe of the freshness of a voice that had been stilled for a full two years. Il Resto di Carlino – "Cavalleria Rusticana has found in Ebe Stignani an exceptional interpreter, in which she displayed her beautiful voice…... The role of Santuzza was exposed in a passionate manner, but without excess". The Teatro Lirico of Milan presented Ebe in the Manzoni Requiem on 19 June. The Teatro alla Scala had been destroyed by bombs during the war, and it was at the Lirico that the company performed for two years. The rest of the year was spent at Naples and at Rome. Her home theater presented her in Aida, Carmen, La Gioconda, Norma and Mignon while Rome mounted productions of Carmen and Gioconda at Caracalla and Boito’s Nerone and Ballo in Maschera at the Reale. The Boito opera was the vehicle of Aureliano Pertile’s farewell to opera; he who had sung in the World Premiere. The final performance found thousands of Romans clamoring for tickets before the performance, and, at the end there were enormous demonstrations of affection in the streets around the theater as the entourage appeared at the stage door.
In 1946 Ebe debuted at the Sao Carlo of Lisbon in Norma with Caniglia, Gigli and Neri to stupendous, clamorous ovations, and her season continued with Falstaff and a gala concert in which she was joined by Caniglia, Renato and Beniamino Gigli and Gino Bechi. Ebe was to return to the Sao Carlo for a virtually unprecedented six consecutive seasons. At Madrid’s Teatro Albeniz, Ebe sang in Aida and Falstaff before returning to Caracalla for Norma with Caniglia and Merli, followed by Aida and Cavalleria Rusticana . In September Ebe debuted at Geneva in Norma and in October, at Catania’s Massimo Bellini in La Favorita. The Garibaldi of Palermo also presented her in the Donzetti work and in Cavalleria Rusticana.
La Scala had reopened in May and Ebe appeared in the rebuilt theater for the first time on 29 January 1947 as Dalila to huge, almost hysterical ovations. A review of the revival contains the following quote " For (Stignani) the music always comes first….. She always sings with the orchestra, never against it. We salute Ebe Stignani, the "prima" singer of the day, and certainly among the most important of our time."
After engagements at Genoa and Turin, Ebe returned to Lisbon for La Favorita, Aida, and two concerts, the first with Caniglia, Mario Filippeschi and Giulio Neri, the other with Caniglia, Fedora Barbieri, Miriam Pirazzini and Elizabetta Barbato. Of Stignani’s Amneris, O Seculo declared " Ebe Stignani, who sang the role of Amneris with a prodigious voice, generated storms of applause". Ebe appeared in Paris at the Theatre des Champs Elysees on 24 May in the role of Azucena and on the 30th, she sang La Favorita. Both assignments were rapturously received by sold out houses. Paris Presse headlined its review of Il Trovatore – "The Golden voice of Ebe Stignani". At La Scala she sang in Orfeo ed Euridice, then traveled to Zurich for Ballo in Maschera and Norma before returning to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo for La Gioconda and Aida. In October at Rome, Ebe sang in a radio broadcast of Handel’s Rinaldo and in November she debuted at the Barcelona Liceo in Norma with Caniglia. On 4 December she sang the role of Orfeo and the Spanish audience reacted with a frenzy hardly known, even to that most demonstrative audience. El Noticiero Universal – "After the famous "Che faro", Ebe Stignani received the greatest of ovacions. There are not enough superlatives." Her season at the Liceo ended with Azucena, as did her engagements in 1947.
1948 began with Norma, Cavalleria Rusticana and Aida at La Scala, and continued with a month long engagement at Lisbon, where she sang in Il Trovatore, Cavalleria, Sansone e Dalila, Aida, and Norma, as well as a concert with Caniglia, Alda Noni, B.Gigli, Mario del Monaco, Cesare Valletti and Gino Bechi. After several engagements in Italy, Ebe returned to San Francisco, where, on 14 Septmenber, she sang Quickly in a cast that included Regina Resnik (then a soprano), Licia Albanese, Herta Glaz, Salvatore Baccaloni and Robert Weede. At Sacramento, she sang Santuzza before reprising the role at San Francisco and she ended her season at the War Memorial Opera House in La Gioconda. Ebe then traveled throughout the United States and into Canada on a concert tour, with additional performances of Falstaff, Il Trovatore, La Forza del Destino and La Gioconda in Los Angeles, and Il Trovatore and La Gioconda at Philadelphia. The tour took Ebe as far north as Winnipeg, Toronto and Trois Rivieres in Canada and as far east as New York City where she debuted at Carnegie Hall on 13 December accompanied by Paul Ulanowsky. The World Telegram headlined its review "Ebe Stignani superlative at Carnegie".
The winter and spring of 1949 were spent in Italy and Lisbon, and on 6 August she returned to the Verona Arena for Il Trovatore with Adriana Guerrini, Jose Soler and Torres. In October Ebe returned to North America for another exhausting concert and opera tour, appearing in such far flung places as Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Winston Salem, North Carolina, Dallas, Miami and Edmonton, Canada. Ebe sang in Il Trovatore at Hartford and at Philadelphia. Her Carnegie Hall recital was not universally praised, the New York Times declaring – "Her singing on this occasion was hardly up to the high standard awaited by so celebrated an artist". On the other hand, the Philadelphia Bulletin reported, after her concert at the Academy of Music – "The impact of a voice of this caliber produces an affect on an audience that is quite special and apart". The tour continued into January 1950 and ended at Worcester, Massachusetts on the 31st.
Ebe’s return to Italy anticipated one of the most important events in her career, her first collaboration with Maria Menighini Callas with whom she sang in "Norma" at the Rome Opera on 23 February. Galliano Masini and Giulio Neri contributed mightily to a performance that was headline news throughout Italy. Il Tempo "To hear Ebe Stignani is to know that she has no equal". The newspaper further reported that the presence of the "Greek" created a tense situation between her admirers and those who did not consider themselves "callasiani". However, it was an unprecedented success for all involved. Ebe’s season continued with six assumptions at Lisbon, including Rossini’s "Stabat Mater" with Renata Tebaldi, and, after her usual visits to Naples, Florence, Milan, Genoa and Bologna, Stignani sang in the Manzoni Requiem withTebaldi, Poggi and Rossi Lemeni at Naples’ Teatro San Carlo and later at the Basilica di San Francesco di Paola, the site of Enrico Caruso’s funeral.
In 1951 Ebe added the role of Cuniza in "Oberto Conte di San Bonifaccio" at La Scala and she sang the Manzoni Requiem at Paris, Venice, Perugia, Catania and London. The Venice engagement presented the particularly intriguing cast of Elizabeth Shwarzkopf, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Cesare Siepi under the leadership of Victor de Sabata. In January of 1952 Ebe sang with Callas in "Norma", this time at La Scala, and on 8 November they appeared again in the legendary revival of the Bellini work at Covent Garden. The performance is well known to collectors around the world as one of the finest performances ever preserved for posterity. Both were in stupendous voice and the ovations after the two great duets are as memorable as was the vocalism. The "Manchester Guardian" – "Ebe Stignani sang with a classic grandeur, a beautiful voice, perfect intonation and rich dramatic accents. At the end of the opera there were over a dozen curtain calls, but Stignani did not appear". It was reported that during the final dress rehearsal and again at the first interval on opening night, Madama Callas had made sarcastic remarks about "one of her colleagues", variously reported as directed at Giulio Neri and at Stignani, herself. One reported suggested that Callas had snarled the word "giovinetta" toward the forty nine year old mezzo. In any case, Ebe determined to express her displeasure by excluding herself from the evening’s final festivities. Her music over, she retreated to her dressing room, changed, and returned to her hotel. Words were never exchanged and the four remaining performances went off without incident. On 12 December they again shared the stage when La Scala mounted a production of "La Gioconda" with Di Stefano, Tagiabue and Tajo under Votto’s baton. During the year, there had been other significant engagements for Ebe: Amneris at Monte Carlo, Adalgisa at Naples, Eboli at Turin, Samson et Dalila at Berne and the Manzoni Requiem at both Zurich and Geneva. Everywhere she appeared, Ebe’s reviews expressed awe at the freshness of a voice that "shows no wear after more than a quarter century upon the stage". At Berne, one review stated that "Ebe Stignani has a voice with the strength and range of a dramatic soprano and the allure and technique of a leggiera". Indeed!
1953 found Ebe in triumph at La Scala in "Il Trovatore", again with Callas whose star shone as brightly, and at the Teatro Colon as Orfeo, Amneris and Eboli and at Barcelona as Amneris in the company of Caterina Mancini and Mario del Monaco. In 1954 she appeared as Eboli at La Scala in the only production of "Don Carlo" that Maria Callas ever sang and she returned to Buenos Aires for "La Favorita" and "Norma" as well as to London for the Manzoni Requiem with Joan Hammond, Gigli and Rossi Lemeni. On 7 December she, Callas and Corelli opened La Scala in the Visconti production of "La Vestale" to one of the greatest ovations in that theater’s history. The performance has never been available in good sound, but one can still gather a recitation of astounding opulence and grandeur from all three principals. On 4 May 1955, Stignani debuted at Dublin’s Gaiety Theater in "Norma" with Mancini, and after appearances at Ravenna, Rome, London and Naples, Ebe returned to Chicago, where, on 4 November she sang in "Il Trovatore" with Callas, Bjorling and Bastianini. It was a headline story, not only in Chicago but throught the United States and some who attended have declared Stignani’s voice the most naturally effulgent tone they ever heard. The Chicago Sun Times headlined its review "Callas bows to Gypsy in "Il Trovatore".
In 1956, Ebe sang in "La Gioconda" at Florence with the magnificent Anita Cerquetti, and later she appeared in "Un Ballo in Maschera" at La Scala with Antonietta Stella, Tagliavini and Giuseppe Taddei. She returned to Naples for "Aida" and "Falstaff" which was her operatic farewell to her home town, and at year’s end she sang in "Sansone e Dalila" at Parma.
On 6 January 1957, she appeared in "Un Ballo in Maschera" at Florence, a performance preserved on CD, and one of incredible grandeur for her performance as well as that of Cerquetti. London again saw her in the company of Callas in "Norma", a performance that generated such a torrent of applause that Mira O Norma had to be encored, an event not witnessed at that theater in anyone’s memory. Dublin presented Ebe in the Manzoni Requiem and she ended the year with a concert at Limerick.
In 1958 she appeared at London’s Drury Lane as Azucena and on 12 April she sang in her last production when she appeared as Amneris at Dublin with Gloria Davy. After three performances, Ebe closed the book on her career and on her public life, retreating to her villa at Imola where she would remain until her death on 6 October 1974. The Teatro Comunale of Florence and La Scala were only two of the theaters that mounted testimonial evenings for Ebe, and she graciously accepted their invitations, but her life was among the most private of any celebrated artist of her time. From Rasponi’s "The Last Prima Donnas" - "Parties, receptions, dinners are not an escape for me as they represent a considerable effort. They expect to meet an extraordinary person, all these people who clamor for an introduction, but there is nothing extraordinary about me except the voice, and that they must come to the theater to hear. ….If I had not married and had a son, who is the joy of my life, I would almost say I lived the existence of a nun. …..What is more wonderful than a heart which opens up to the sound of a voice that is dear? I cannot think of anything. And I would like to think that the hearts of the people who listen to me, experience just this very sensation. If I am able to do this, then I am content, for then my small mission in this tormented world we live in is done".
© Bob Rideout