Renata Tebaldi

Two releases in Classic Recitals have already been devoted to Renata Tebaldi – one an early compilation programme and the other a programme of opera duets with Franco Corelli. These two titles are among the most popular in the series so far, and since the death of Renata Tebaldi in late 2004 there have been many more requests to release another CD in this series.

Renata Tebaldi was born in Pesaro on 1 February 1922 and made her debut at Rovigo in Mefistofele (as Elena) in May 1944. One of her earliest and most enduring roles was that of Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème which she first sang in Parma in January 1945 and which would feature in her repertory until 1970.

At New York's Metropolitan Opera, where she first appeared in 1955, Tebaldi performed all of her stage roles and it was in that house that she gave her final stage appearances as Desdemona (in Verdi's Otello) under the baton of James Levine in January 1973. Renata Tebaldi's farewell recital would be on home ground when she bade farewell to her public at La Scala, on 23 May 1976. She died on 19 December 2004.

Renata Tebaldi's catalogue of recordings for Decca began with a recital disc, made in 1949. Over the next twenty years she would go on to record twenty-seven complete opera recordings of twenty-two roles.