Virginia Zeani: The Decca Recitals

The Romanian soprano Virginia Zeani, who celebrated her 90th birthday in 2015, made only two studio recordings with a major label: these recordings for Decca of coloratura arias conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and Puccini arias conducted by Franco Patanè. Generally, she favoured the spontaneity of live recordings. She did not have an agent and was not an active self-promoter, which may account for the fact that she is less well known today than other great singers. However, there was never any doubt as to her mastery. Richard Bonynge once remarked: 'Apart from Joan [Sutherland], who will always be number one on my list, the voices I most remember are Flagstad, Virginia Zeani and Renata Tebaldi. Zeani, whom I heard in the early fifties, had, at that time, a voice that was very beautiful all the way up to the E-flat, and the low register was phenomenal, Ponsellian in a way.' Now, her two Decca recitals are available together as a 2CD set.