Giuseppina Zinetti
The period 1900 to 1940 presented a large roster of Italian mezzos of the first rank, Elvira Casazza, Virginia Guerrini, Luisa Garibaldi, Nini Frascani, Gabriella Besanzoni, Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, Maria Capuana, Maria Benedetti, Nini Gianni, Ebe Stignani, Gianna Pederzini, Cloe Elmo, and the subject of our article, Giuseppina Zinetti. They were all much admired and there was tremendous overlap in their careers, allowing Italy and much of the world to have consistently fine casting for the major Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini and Verismo operas, and, of course, Carmen. In addition, Aurora Buades of Spain and Fanny Anitua of Mexico had brilliant careers at the same venues over the same period of time. Though it seems that most would place Stignani in a class apart from the others, my personal favourite is Irene Minghini Cattaneo, whose vibrancy and range remain models of that which I look for in the species. Zinetti was among the most vivid actresses of the group, and her recordings reflect the character of her stage performances, described by many as imprecise and wide ranging, but extremely effective. She presented Carmen far more often than any of the others, and was almost unanimously praised by critics and public, though we have little by which to judge its merits, since it was never recorded complete.
As with so many other singers, Giuseppina Zinetti's beginnings are not certain. Most biographical notes list her birthplace as Ferrara, but several have claimed Verona. Her date of birth has been placed as early as 1884 and as late as 1889. After some fairly exhaustive research, with help from others. I am prepared to say that it was likely in 1889, and definitely at Ferrara. The confusion seems to be linked to the facts that she married the Veronese conductor, Gaetano Zinetti in, or about, 1906, and that certain biographers from Verona, because of that connection, wished to claim her as their own. What is certain is that she bore four children, two of them stillborn, and that the two survivors, daughters Dora, who sang under the surname of Dori, and Lina, who sang as "Zinetti", both had considerable careers in Italy after the retirement of their mother. The mystery of their private lives is further complicated by the fact that Lina began her career as Liliana Stelvio, which leaves another question, as of now, unanswered: did Giuseppina remarry or was that, Lina's married name. My inquiries have resulted in no additional information.
About Giuseppina Zinetti's career, we know a great deal more, perhaps as much as there is to know, though that is not likely. She debuted at Palermo's Teatro Massimo on 25 February 1913 in "La Traviata", singing both Flora and Annina. The conductor was Bavagnoli and the cast included Cannetti, Armanini and Bellantoni. There were nine performances. She immediately sailed for Buenos Aires, where, on 25 May she debuted as the Contessa in "Rigoletto" with Barrientos, Anselmi, Stracciari and Ludikar. She was to sing Flora in "Traviata" with Barrientos, Schipa and Stracciari and Ursula in "Feuersnot" with Krusceniski, Perini, Bonfanti and Stracciari. Her singing was complimented by several of her more famous colleagues, and she was encouraged to continue her career. Many years later, when she was teaching in Milan, she referred to his period as the one in which she learned the most. Among the students with whom she shared her thoughts about these early days, was Mafalda Favero, who occasionally sought Zinetti's advice about matters both technical and interpretive.
In the late autumn she would repeat Flora at the Milan Dal Verme with Finzi Magrini and Schipa as well as appearing in an opera called "Mese Mariano" in the role of La Contessa. In 1914, she returned to Buenos Aires where she appeared in the Colon premiere of "Parsifal" as a Page in the stellar company of Rakowska, Rousseliere, Galeffi, Formichi, and de Angelis. Her husband conducted the opera. Her season continued as Puck in Oberon with Gagliardi, Perini, Botta and Manfrini and it concluded with Faust in the role of Marthe. Cannetti, Perini, Bonci, Galeffi and de Angelis completed the cast. During this period she and her husband had recurring and bitter fights over her continuing pursuit of a career, he, claiming that her role as wife and mother precluded the possibility of allowing her to go into the world of performing on her own. Gaetano Zinetti was killed in battle shortly after the outbreak of World War I. Giuseppina, now left to her own devices, moved to Milan with her children, where she engaged an agent to help her secure work.
She continued to sing comprimario roles for several more years, though rarely in theaters not of the top rank. In 1915 she toured to fifteen cities in "Linda di Chamounix" with Clasenti and the town of La Spezia hosted her in "Santa Poesia" by Cortopassi. She sang Siebel at Verona to the Marguerite of Giannina Russ. Rome especially welcomed her talents as Suzuki, Teodoro in "Boris Gudunov", the Countess in "Andrea Chenier", Emilia in "Otello", Pantalis in "Mefistofele", the mother in "Louise", and the singer in "Manon Lescaut". In the spring of 1917, after Maddalena in "Rigoletto", she stepped into "Il Trovatore" at the Costanzi when Gabriella Besanzoni became indisposed, and from that point forward, the career began to assume greater importance. She sang Orsini in "Lucrezia Borgia", Federico in "Mignon" and the world premiere of "Huemac" at Rome. She sang Azucena at Barcelona on New Year's Day, 1918 and later in the month sang Maddalena in "Rigoletto" with Angeles Ottein and Tito Schipa. In May, Zinetti sang Carmen for the first time at Milan’s Teatro Carcano. In September, she took on the title role in "Mignon" at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli. The audiences and critics were so impressed that she was reengaged for the winter season as Amneris, Carmen and Laura in "La Gioconda". Alfredo Giovene's Il Teatro Petruzzelli states: "stately and imposing, Giuseppina Zinetti epitomized the cigarette girl with superb artistic instincts". It was done; all of Italy heard about their next great Carmen and before the year was over, Genoa, Florence, Turin and Cremona had seen her as the temperamental seductress. Aureliano Pertile was her Don Jose at Genoa, Turin and Cremona.
In 1920, Zinetti added Vienna, Budapest, Bergamo, Rovigo and Piacenze to the roster of cities that capitulated to her gypsy. On 24 Jan, at Trieste's Teatro Verdi, she sang Amneris with the stellar cast of Poli Randaccio, Fleta, Maugeri and Lanskoy conducted by La Rotella. In July, she triumphed in the role at the Verona Arena, again with Poli Randaccio, as well as with Pertile, Morellato and Manfrini.
In January, 1921, at Trieste, she sang Dalila for the first time with Calleja as her doomed "lover", and Catania saw it barely a month later with Famadas. Carmen continued to dominate her career to the exclusion of almost all other roles, and, for the remainder of 1921, it was the only role she sang, appearing at Catania, Palermo, Naples, Reggio Emilia and Venice.
In 1922, for the third time in succession, she began her year in Trieste, when she sang Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier" with Labia, Tegani and Ludikar conducted by Marinuzzi. In May she portrayed Bizet’s seductress at Lecce and repeated the role at Catania in August. On 14 October, she returned to the Dal Verme for "Il Trovatore" with Poli Randaccio, O'Sullivan, Franci and Righetti, conducted by Guarnieri, after which, she returned to Trieste, where, on 3 November, she debuted as Carmen at the Teatro Rossetti.
In 1923, she added Marguerite in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" and Brangane to her repertoire at Rome's Costanzi, and sang as well in eighteen performances of "Aida" and six of "Il Trovatore". In August she appeared at Udine in "Aida" and in October she returned to the Dal Verme for Carmen. On 22 Nov, Zinetti sang Amneris at the Costanzi in a gala performance honoring the King and Queen of Spain. Poli Randaccio, de Muro, Molinari and Manfrini completed the cast and Mascagni was afforded the honour of conducting. Samperdarena and Parma saw her Carmen in December.
On 16 January 1924 she sang Fedora for the first time, when she appeared in it at Trieste, and in February at Cairo and Alexandria she sang in "Aida", "Carmen" and "Samson and Dalila". In May, Zinetti debuted in the Netherlands as Carmen, with additional performances of "Fedora" and "Aida". She appeared at Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. In this year, she added Modena, Brescia, Ferrara and Cento to the list of cities that witnessed her Carmen, and she repeated the role at Florence. On 4 December, she made her eagerly awaited debut at La Scala as Carmen with Alfani-Tellini, Crimi and Franci conducted by Gui. Her success was so great that she was retained for eight performances.
Zinetti again opened the year at Trieste as, the by now defining Carmen, singing 11 performances with Menotti, Chiaia and Persichetti. She returned to La Scala in February for eight performances of "Aida" with the formidable cast of Arangi-Lombardi, Pertile, Franci and Righetti, and on 7 April, Rome saw her gypsy for the first time with Crimi and Parvis. The summer found her again at Udine for seven performances of "Carmen" with the very young Augusta Oltrabella as Micaela. In November, Barcelona's Liceo hosted her first Spanish assignment in the role. Miguel Fleta joined her in a reception which "hasn't been seen in this city for many years, certainly not in the memory of this correspondent" La Vanguardia. It was Fleta's Liceo debut, and, though his was the greatest triumph of the evening, "the fascinating Giuseppina Zinetti received more than a fair share of the applause": same correspondent. She subsequently sang Gluck's Orfeo for the first time, and "was called to the footlights too many times to count". After Che Faro, the theater erupted into such applause that the performance was suspended for several minutes". She recalled it as the greatest personal success of her career, and she was asked to repeat the role in all three additional seasons in which she appeared at the Liceo. She ended her engagement with Amneris, again partnered by Fleta. His vocalism and her acting were noted with superlatives by virtually every newspaper in the city. It should be noted that she sang more roles and more performances at the Liceo than any other "featured" mezzo soprano between the two Wars.
After seeing her at the Liceo, several impresarios made lucrative offers, and she accepted one that would take her to Majorca and several cities on the Spanish mainland in the Spring of 1926. After repeats of "Carmen" and "Aida" at La Scala in January, and a return to "Rosenkavalier" at Trieste in March, she traveled to Valencia, where, on 5 May at the Teatro Principal, she opened the tour with "La Favorita". Fleta was her partner in this and her other two tour operas, "Aida" and "Carmen". Ticket prices were inflated by four times for all performances, and in several of the cities, the "Sold Out" sign went up every day. Valencia's Fidelio, on 7 May, stated –" The theater was full and the artists received the ovations that they rightfully deserved, special praise being saved for Fleta. La Signora Giuseppina Zinetti, exemplified her role. She is an artist who sings beautifully, with a fresh voice and who performs with gusto".
After this sole performance at Valencia, Palma de Majorca and Bilbao saw her in "Favorita", "Aida", and "Carmen". The Palma engagment ended on 15 May and the Bilbao performances did not begin until 17 June, so it seems certain that other cities were visited in the interim "including bullrings and other outdoor stadiums", so enormous was the demand for tickets. The likely venues were Saragossa, Pamplona, San Sebastian and Valladolid, though, without firm evidence, we cannot know. On 25 June she embarked from Bilbao to join the Walter Mocchi tour to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo. Her colleagues included Scacciati, Pacetti, Sayao, D. Borgioli, de Muro, Merli, Cesa Bianchi, Galeffi, Granforte, Crabbe and Vanni Marcoux. Her two month stay featured performances of "Carmen", "Aida" and "Samson and Dalila", and, for the only times in her career, Massenet's "Don Quichotte" and "Don Carlo".
Though the tour was both a financial and critical success, it was to be the last of the Mocchi tours, a tradition that had been part of South America's operatic ritual for twenty years.
She returned immediately to Barcelona for a long and most impressive season. On 16 November she sang Carmen, again with Fleta, to their now accustomed acclaim. This time there were some questions in the press about Fleta's vocalism, though there was no lack of enthusiasm on the part of the public. She sang in "Favorita", "Lohengrin" with Spani, Fleta, and Granforte, "Aida" with the same cast, "Un Ballo in Maschera" with Spani, Bonci and Stracciari, and "Orfeo e Eurydice". On the evening of the first "Lohengrin" Fleta had to encore "Da voi lontano" in Catalan to please the "audience, who had paid any amount to see their hero in his new role". On 3 Feb, 1927, La Scala audiences saw her Carmen for the third year in a row, and Parma's notoriously demonstrative audience saw it on the 17th of the month. According to all reports, she was acclaimed as a most exciting and expressive exponent of her most familiar role, and stayed for five performances.
On 9 September, at Venice's Teatro La Fenice, Zinetti sang Isabella in "L'Italiana in Algeri", and, on the 28th, she sang the title role in the World Premiere of "La Fata Malerba" by Vittorio Gui. It was a "scandalous" failure and was dropped after two performances. Her year again ended at Barcelona where she sang in "Carmen", "Aida" and "Gioconda" with Poli Randaccio, Aroldo Lindi and Granforte, "Orfeo", "Samson e Dalila" with Pedro La Fuente and Granforte and a new role, Fricka in "Die Walkuere".
In November, 1927 it was announced in newspapers, magazines and many opera programs that Irene Minghini Cattaneo had been engaged to travel with a particularly stellar group of Italian artists to Australia for a six month season of opera "the likes of which Australia had never seen". At some point, before the group departed Italy, Minghini-Cattaneo withdrew and Zinetti stood in her place. The company was to appear at Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, and included Arangi Lombardi, Spani, dal Monte, Lina Scavizzi, De Muro Lomanto, Minghetti, Merli, Granforte, Rossi Morelli, Autori and di Lelio. Among non-Italians were Xenia Belmas, Vera di Cristoff and John Brownlee, the famous Aussie from Geelong, who would be a major drawing card in the first third of the season. Zinetti was hailed as the "most famous Carmen of the day", which was probably true, and appeared in some 17 performances of "Aida", eight of "Lohengrin", and two of "Il Trovatore". She was scheduled to appear in at least ten performances of "Carmen", but illness prevented her from singing more than two, both of them at Melbourne. Of Zinetti, Argus said: (She) gave a strongly dramatic reading of Ortrud" and The Age declared that "Zinetti's striking, rich voiced Carmen justified her reputation". Alison Gyger's Opera for the Antipodes notes that "Il Trovatore" at Sydney was "strongly cast"; the protagonists were Arangi Lombardi, Zinetti, Merli and Granforte. Need we wonder about that observation? In "Aida", Argus referred to Zinetti as "the ideal Amneris, not only because of her remarkable beauty of face and form, but, because she combined her physical attributes with a warm contralto voice and considerable acting powers".
In December she sang in "Aida", "Il Trovatore", "Emporium", "La Favorita", "Carmen" and "Orfeo" at the now, most welcoming Barcelona Liceo and with these performances, Zinetti’s international was about at an end. She ended 1929 with Fidelma in Cimarosa’s "Matrimonio Segreto" at Rome’s Costanzi and began the new year with "Mignon" at Modena.
1931 saw her as Fidelma at Turin's Regio and at Salzburg. For EIAR (Italian Radio) in June, she sang Carmen at both Rome and Turin and in September she sang in "Lohengrin" at the same studios. Pia Tassinari was Elsa and Ettore Parmeggiani, Lohengrin. During the year she repeated Carmen at both Genoa and at Milan’s Teatro Puccini, partnered by Piccaluga and Carlo Morelli at the Puccini. On 29 November she sang again for EIAR in the World Premiere of Rito Selvaggi's "Maggiolata Veneziana" with Carmen Melis and repeated the role of Sirena the following year on the same radio circuit.
In 1932 Zinetti sang in "Mignon" at Genoa and in "Rosenkavalier" at Palermo’s Massimo as well as "Carmen" at Palermo’s Giardino Inglese. She sang in "Principessa Lontana" at Vicenza in 1934 and in January of 1936 she appeared in "Liola" at Turin. Her farewell was at Turin's Teatro Vittorio Emanuele on 16 March 1936 as the Principessa in "Suor Angelica" in a cast that included Augusta Oltrabella and Magda Olivero. It has been reported that as late as 1941 she sang Preziosilla at Alessandria, but I am persuaded that it was her daughter, Lina, who sang the role.
Before Zinetti's death in 1973, she taught in Milan at Corso Lodi 78. Lina sang as a mezzo for a good many years and appeared in many of Italy's important theaters including Genoa's Carlo Felice, Paganini and Politeama, the Costanzi of Rome, Piacenza's Municipale, Modena's Comunale, Ravenna's Alghieri and Bari's Petruzzelli. Her roles included Maddelena, Azucena, Lisa in "La Sonnambula", Beppe in "L'Amico Fritz' Teodoro in "Boris Gudonuv", Amneris, Suzuki, Preziosilla, La Principessa di Bouillion, and La Cieca. Dora was not nearly so successful, though she sang throughout Italy, especially at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli, and at other Adriatic cities in the "lyric" repertoire for some number of years. Among roles that I have discovered are Samaritana in "Francesca da Rimini", Musetta, Tosca, Nedda, Olgain"Fedora" and Oscar in "Ballo in Maschera. It must have been particulary rewarding to their mother, and to them, when, on 25 October, 1941, the sisters appeared together in Pick-Mangiagalli's "Notturno Romantico" at the Teatro Municipale of Reggio Emilia. After Zinetti's death, they continued to teach in her apartment, until sometime in 1985, at which point, it would seem that they disappeared into the history that had so framed their lives.
© Bob Rideout
As with so many other singers, Giuseppina Zinetti's beginnings are not certain. Most biographical notes list her birthplace as Ferrara, but several have claimed Verona. Her date of birth has been placed as early as 1884 and as late as 1889. After some fairly exhaustive research, with help from others. I am prepared to say that it was likely in 1889, and definitely at Ferrara. The confusion seems to be linked to the facts that she married the Veronese conductor, Gaetano Zinetti in, or about, 1906, and that certain biographers from Verona, because of that connection, wished to claim her as their own. What is certain is that she bore four children, two of them stillborn, and that the two survivors, daughters Dora, who sang under the surname of Dori, and Lina, who sang as "Zinetti", both had considerable careers in Italy after the retirement of their mother. The mystery of their private lives is further complicated by the fact that Lina began her career as Liliana Stelvio, which leaves another question, as of now, unanswered: did Giuseppina remarry or was that, Lina's married name. My inquiries have resulted in no additional information.
About Giuseppina Zinetti's career, we know a great deal more, perhaps as much as there is to know, though that is not likely. She debuted at Palermo's Teatro Massimo on 25 February 1913 in "La Traviata", singing both Flora and Annina. The conductor was Bavagnoli and the cast included Cannetti, Armanini and Bellantoni. There were nine performances. She immediately sailed for Buenos Aires, where, on 25 May she debuted as the Contessa in "Rigoletto" with Barrientos, Anselmi, Stracciari and Ludikar. She was to sing Flora in "Traviata" with Barrientos, Schipa and Stracciari and Ursula in "Feuersnot" with Krusceniski, Perini, Bonfanti and Stracciari. Her singing was complimented by several of her more famous colleagues, and she was encouraged to continue her career. Many years later, when she was teaching in Milan, she referred to his period as the one in which she learned the most. Among the students with whom she shared her thoughts about these early days, was Mafalda Favero, who occasionally sought Zinetti's advice about matters both technical and interpretive.
In the late autumn she would repeat Flora at the Milan Dal Verme with Finzi Magrini and Schipa as well as appearing in an opera called "Mese Mariano" in the role of La Contessa. In 1914, she returned to Buenos Aires where she appeared in the Colon premiere of "Parsifal" as a Page in the stellar company of Rakowska, Rousseliere, Galeffi, Formichi, and de Angelis. Her husband conducted the opera. Her season continued as Puck in Oberon with Gagliardi, Perini, Botta and Manfrini and it concluded with Faust in the role of Marthe. Cannetti, Perini, Bonci, Galeffi and de Angelis completed the cast. During this period she and her husband had recurring and bitter fights over her continuing pursuit of a career, he, claiming that her role as wife and mother precluded the possibility of allowing her to go into the world of performing on her own. Gaetano Zinetti was killed in battle shortly after the outbreak of World War I. Giuseppina, now left to her own devices, moved to Milan with her children, where she engaged an agent to help her secure work.
She continued to sing comprimario roles for several more years, though rarely in theaters not of the top rank. In 1915 she toured to fifteen cities in "Linda di Chamounix" with Clasenti and the town of La Spezia hosted her in "Santa Poesia" by Cortopassi. She sang Siebel at Verona to the Marguerite of Giannina Russ. Rome especially welcomed her talents as Suzuki, Teodoro in "Boris Gudunov", the Countess in "Andrea Chenier", Emilia in "Otello", Pantalis in "Mefistofele", the mother in "Louise", and the singer in "Manon Lescaut". In the spring of 1917, after Maddalena in "Rigoletto", she stepped into "Il Trovatore" at the Costanzi when Gabriella Besanzoni became indisposed, and from that point forward, the career began to assume greater importance. She sang Orsini in "Lucrezia Borgia", Federico in "Mignon" and the world premiere of "Huemac" at Rome. She sang Azucena at Barcelona on New Year's Day, 1918 and later in the month sang Maddalena in "Rigoletto" with Angeles Ottein and Tito Schipa. In May, Zinetti sang Carmen for the first time at Milan’s Teatro Carcano. In September, she took on the title role in "Mignon" at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli. The audiences and critics were so impressed that she was reengaged for the winter season as Amneris, Carmen and Laura in "La Gioconda". Alfredo Giovene's Il Teatro Petruzzelli states: "stately and imposing, Giuseppina Zinetti epitomized the cigarette girl with superb artistic instincts". It was done; all of Italy heard about their next great Carmen and before the year was over, Genoa, Florence, Turin and Cremona had seen her as the temperamental seductress. Aureliano Pertile was her Don Jose at Genoa, Turin and Cremona.
In 1920, Zinetti added Vienna, Budapest, Bergamo, Rovigo and Piacenze to the roster of cities that capitulated to her gypsy. On 24 Jan, at Trieste's Teatro Verdi, she sang Amneris with the stellar cast of Poli Randaccio, Fleta, Maugeri and Lanskoy conducted by La Rotella. In July, she triumphed in the role at the Verona Arena, again with Poli Randaccio, as well as with Pertile, Morellato and Manfrini.
In January, 1921, at Trieste, she sang Dalila for the first time with Calleja as her doomed "lover", and Catania saw it barely a month later with Famadas. Carmen continued to dominate her career to the exclusion of almost all other roles, and, for the remainder of 1921, it was the only role she sang, appearing at Catania, Palermo, Naples, Reggio Emilia and Venice.
In 1922, for the third time in succession, she began her year in Trieste, when she sang Octavian in "Der Rosenkavalier" with Labia, Tegani and Ludikar conducted by Marinuzzi. In May she portrayed Bizet’s seductress at Lecce and repeated the role at Catania in August. On 14 October, she returned to the Dal Verme for "Il Trovatore" with Poli Randaccio, O'Sullivan, Franci and Righetti, conducted by Guarnieri, after which, she returned to Trieste, where, on 3 November, she debuted as Carmen at the Teatro Rossetti.
In 1923, she added Marguerite in Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" and Brangane to her repertoire at Rome's Costanzi, and sang as well in eighteen performances of "Aida" and six of "Il Trovatore". In August she appeared at Udine in "Aida" and in October she returned to the Dal Verme for Carmen. On 22 Nov, Zinetti sang Amneris at the Costanzi in a gala performance honoring the King and Queen of Spain. Poli Randaccio, de Muro, Molinari and Manfrini completed the cast and Mascagni was afforded the honour of conducting. Samperdarena and Parma saw her Carmen in December.
On 16 January 1924 she sang Fedora for the first time, when she appeared in it at Trieste, and in February at Cairo and Alexandria she sang in "Aida", "Carmen" and "Samson and Dalila". In May, Zinetti debuted in the Netherlands as Carmen, with additional performances of "Fedora" and "Aida". She appeared at Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. In this year, she added Modena, Brescia, Ferrara and Cento to the list of cities that witnessed her Carmen, and she repeated the role at Florence. On 4 December, she made her eagerly awaited debut at La Scala as Carmen with Alfani-Tellini, Crimi and Franci conducted by Gui. Her success was so great that she was retained for eight performances.
Zinetti again opened the year at Trieste as, the by now defining Carmen, singing 11 performances with Menotti, Chiaia and Persichetti. She returned to La Scala in February for eight performances of "Aida" with the formidable cast of Arangi-Lombardi, Pertile, Franci and Righetti, and on 7 April, Rome saw her gypsy for the first time with Crimi and Parvis. The summer found her again at Udine for seven performances of "Carmen" with the very young Augusta Oltrabella as Micaela. In November, Barcelona's Liceo hosted her first Spanish assignment in the role. Miguel Fleta joined her in a reception which "hasn't been seen in this city for many years, certainly not in the memory of this correspondent" La Vanguardia. It was Fleta's Liceo debut, and, though his was the greatest triumph of the evening, "the fascinating Giuseppina Zinetti received more than a fair share of the applause": same correspondent. She subsequently sang Gluck's Orfeo for the first time, and "was called to the footlights too many times to count". After Che Faro, the theater erupted into such applause that the performance was suspended for several minutes". She recalled it as the greatest personal success of her career, and she was asked to repeat the role in all three additional seasons in which she appeared at the Liceo. She ended her engagement with Amneris, again partnered by Fleta. His vocalism and her acting were noted with superlatives by virtually every newspaper in the city. It should be noted that she sang more roles and more performances at the Liceo than any other "featured" mezzo soprano between the two Wars.
After seeing her at the Liceo, several impresarios made lucrative offers, and she accepted one that would take her to Majorca and several cities on the Spanish mainland in the Spring of 1926. After repeats of "Carmen" and "Aida" at La Scala in January, and a return to "Rosenkavalier" at Trieste in March, she traveled to Valencia, where, on 5 May at the Teatro Principal, she opened the tour with "La Favorita". Fleta was her partner in this and her other two tour operas, "Aida" and "Carmen". Ticket prices were inflated by four times for all performances, and in several of the cities, the "Sold Out" sign went up every day. Valencia's Fidelio, on 7 May, stated –" The theater was full and the artists received the ovations that they rightfully deserved, special praise being saved for Fleta. La Signora Giuseppina Zinetti, exemplified her role. She is an artist who sings beautifully, with a fresh voice and who performs with gusto".
After this sole performance at Valencia, Palma de Majorca and Bilbao saw her in "Favorita", "Aida", and "Carmen". The Palma engagment ended on 15 May and the Bilbao performances did not begin until 17 June, so it seems certain that other cities were visited in the interim "including bullrings and other outdoor stadiums", so enormous was the demand for tickets. The likely venues were Saragossa, Pamplona, San Sebastian and Valladolid, though, without firm evidence, we cannot know. On 25 June she embarked from Bilbao to join the Walter Mocchi tour to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo. Her colleagues included Scacciati, Pacetti, Sayao, D. Borgioli, de Muro, Merli, Cesa Bianchi, Galeffi, Granforte, Crabbe and Vanni Marcoux. Her two month stay featured performances of "Carmen", "Aida" and "Samson and Dalila", and, for the only times in her career, Massenet's "Don Quichotte" and "Don Carlo".
Though the tour was both a financial and critical success, it was to be the last of the Mocchi tours, a tradition that had been part of South America's operatic ritual for twenty years.
She returned immediately to Barcelona for a long and most impressive season. On 16 November she sang Carmen, again with Fleta, to their now accustomed acclaim. This time there were some questions in the press about Fleta's vocalism, though there was no lack of enthusiasm on the part of the public. She sang in "Favorita", "Lohengrin" with Spani, Fleta, and Granforte, "Aida" with the same cast, "Un Ballo in Maschera" with Spani, Bonci and Stracciari, and "Orfeo e Eurydice". On the evening of the first "Lohengrin" Fleta had to encore "Da voi lontano" in Catalan to please the "audience, who had paid any amount to see their hero in his new role". On 3 Feb, 1927, La Scala audiences saw her Carmen for the third year in a row, and Parma's notoriously demonstrative audience saw it on the 17th of the month. According to all reports, she was acclaimed as a most exciting and expressive exponent of her most familiar role, and stayed for five performances.
On 9 September, at Venice's Teatro La Fenice, Zinetti sang Isabella in "L'Italiana in Algeri", and, on the 28th, she sang the title role in the World Premiere of "La Fata Malerba" by Vittorio Gui. It was a "scandalous" failure and was dropped after two performances. Her year again ended at Barcelona where she sang in "Carmen", "Aida" and "Gioconda" with Poli Randaccio, Aroldo Lindi and Granforte, "Orfeo", "Samson e Dalila" with Pedro La Fuente and Granforte and a new role, Fricka in "Die Walkuere".
In November, 1927 it was announced in newspapers, magazines and many opera programs that Irene Minghini Cattaneo had been engaged to travel with a particularly stellar group of Italian artists to Australia for a six month season of opera "the likes of which Australia had never seen". At some point, before the group departed Italy, Minghini-Cattaneo withdrew and Zinetti stood in her place. The company was to appear at Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, and included Arangi Lombardi, Spani, dal Monte, Lina Scavizzi, De Muro Lomanto, Minghetti, Merli, Granforte, Rossi Morelli, Autori and di Lelio. Among non-Italians were Xenia Belmas, Vera di Cristoff and John Brownlee, the famous Aussie from Geelong, who would be a major drawing card in the first third of the season. Zinetti was hailed as the "most famous Carmen of the day", which was probably true, and appeared in some 17 performances of "Aida", eight of "Lohengrin", and two of "Il Trovatore". She was scheduled to appear in at least ten performances of "Carmen", but illness prevented her from singing more than two, both of them at Melbourne. Of Zinetti, Argus said: (She) gave a strongly dramatic reading of Ortrud" and The Age declared that "Zinetti's striking, rich voiced Carmen justified her reputation". Alison Gyger's Opera for the Antipodes notes that "Il Trovatore" at Sydney was "strongly cast"; the protagonists were Arangi Lombardi, Zinetti, Merli and Granforte. Need we wonder about that observation? In "Aida", Argus referred to Zinetti as "the ideal Amneris, not only because of her remarkable beauty of face and form, but, because she combined her physical attributes with a warm contralto voice and considerable acting powers".
In December she sang in "Aida", "Il Trovatore", "Emporium", "La Favorita", "Carmen" and "Orfeo" at the now, most welcoming Barcelona Liceo and with these performances, Zinetti’s international was about at an end. She ended 1929 with Fidelma in Cimarosa’s "Matrimonio Segreto" at Rome’s Costanzi and began the new year with "Mignon" at Modena.
1931 saw her as Fidelma at Turin's Regio and at Salzburg. For EIAR (Italian Radio) in June, she sang Carmen at both Rome and Turin and in September she sang in "Lohengrin" at the same studios. Pia Tassinari was Elsa and Ettore Parmeggiani, Lohengrin. During the year she repeated Carmen at both Genoa and at Milan’s Teatro Puccini, partnered by Piccaluga and Carlo Morelli at the Puccini. On 29 November she sang again for EIAR in the World Premiere of Rito Selvaggi's "Maggiolata Veneziana" with Carmen Melis and repeated the role of Sirena the following year on the same radio circuit.
In 1932 Zinetti sang in "Mignon" at Genoa and in "Rosenkavalier" at Palermo’s Massimo as well as "Carmen" at Palermo’s Giardino Inglese. She sang in "Principessa Lontana" at Vicenza in 1934 and in January of 1936 she appeared in "Liola" at Turin. Her farewell was at Turin's Teatro Vittorio Emanuele on 16 March 1936 as the Principessa in "Suor Angelica" in a cast that included Augusta Oltrabella and Magda Olivero. It has been reported that as late as 1941 she sang Preziosilla at Alessandria, but I am persuaded that it was her daughter, Lina, who sang the role.
Before Zinetti's death in 1973, she taught in Milan at Corso Lodi 78. Lina sang as a mezzo for a good many years and appeared in many of Italy's important theaters including Genoa's Carlo Felice, Paganini and Politeama, the Costanzi of Rome, Piacenza's Municipale, Modena's Comunale, Ravenna's Alghieri and Bari's Petruzzelli. Her roles included Maddelena, Azucena, Lisa in "La Sonnambula", Beppe in "L'Amico Fritz' Teodoro in "Boris Gudonuv", Amneris, Suzuki, Preziosilla, La Principessa di Bouillion, and La Cieca. Dora was not nearly so successful, though she sang throughout Italy, especially at Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli, and at other Adriatic cities in the "lyric" repertoire for some number of years. Among roles that I have discovered are Samaritana in "Francesca da Rimini", Musetta, Tosca, Nedda, Olgain"Fedora" and Oscar in "Ballo in Maschera. It must have been particulary rewarding to their mother, and to them, when, on 25 October, 1941, the sisters appeared together in Pick-Mangiagalli's "Notturno Romantico" at the Teatro Municipale of Reggio Emilia. After Zinetti's death, they continued to teach in her apartment, until sometime in 1985, at which point, it would seem that they disappeared into the history that had so framed their lives.
© Bob Rideout