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Puccini - La bohème: Che gelida manina
Luciano Pavarotti, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Tiziano Severini & Mirella Freni
O soave fanciulla (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, October 23, 1966)
Mirella Freni & Gianni Raimondi
La Traviata: Libiamo ne' lieli calici (Live At Philharmonie, Berlin / 1998)
Mirella Freni, Christine Schäfer, Marcelo Álvarez, Simon Keenlyside, Berlin Philharmonic & Claudio Abbado
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, TH 5: Letter Scene (Live At Philharmonie, Berlin / 1998)
Mirella Freni, Berlin Philharmonic & Claudio Abbado
Puccini - La bohème: Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì
Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, San Francisco Opera Orchestra & Tiziano Severini
About Mirella Freni
Artist Biography
Ranking among modern history’s most renowned bel canto sopranos, Mirella Freni mixed nimbleness and precision with dramatic heft. She was born in 1935 in Modena, Italy, and took an interest in opera at a young age, winning a national competition at 12 with a Puccini aria. She made her stage debut in 1955—in her hometown—as Micaëla in Carmen (1875), a role to which she would return throughout her career. In 1963, Freni became the toast of the Italian opera world with her portrayal of Mimì in Franco Zeffirelli's production of La Bohème (1896) at La Scala. It remains one of the opera’s defining stagings. As her star rose internationally in the late 1960s, Freni unveiled her celebrated Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (1867) at the Metropolitan Opera, further illustrating her ability to communicate deep emotion while performing technically demanding lyric roles. In the 1970s and '80s, Freni pushed beyond her established comfort zone with heavier dramatic roles, most notably in Verdi operas including Otello (1887) and Aida (1871). Her expressive performances have been widely disseminated through her prolific videography, the 1974 film of Madama Butterfly (1904) with Plácido Domingo being a standout. Freni retired from performing at the age of 70 to focus on teaching, and she died in Modena in 2020.
Hometown
Modena, Italy
Genre
Classical
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