I have "been in love" with Miss Scotto for over fifty years; with her vouce,her beauty and now her INTELLIGENCE;what a wonderful interview.Its a pity that we could not hear more from her.Miss Scotto was the last of the "True" divas and one of the Greatest of those; how fortunate that much of her greatest days were captured both in recordings and on film.I wish that she had recorded/filmed "Minnie" in "La Fanciulla del West," and "Lady Macbeth"; the excerpt of her singing "live", the sleepwalking scene from "Macbeth" at the "Met Gala" has to be the BEST of ANY recorded and acted; She WAS "Lady Macbeth"! R.I.P. Miss Scotto; THANKYOU for giving so many millions of people great joy with your IMMENSE talent and LOVE for the ultimate of all arts.
100% agree Lady Macbeth in spirit, life & Opera! A rare natural talent too from a poor background. Determined hard working a true role model for us all today...RIP
what a rare piece of jewel. having older opera artists give out full interviews in English about their careers and life is rather rare nowadays, especially from legendary artists like Miss Scotto. Not many are alive today. Thank God for her to still be with us to share her wisdom to us, the younger generation. I also definitely could tell she loved Callas, despite the drama. could definitely see Callas influence on her stage performance. Miss Scotto is really one of the finest actresses of the 20th century opera.
Thank you so much! And greetings from Russia (not the crazy political one) whith all our love, respect and awe! I believe Bing&Dennis should know, that their work that they do, all the joy that they bring us is highly appreciated by all the operagoing community. Thank you!!!
She has always admired Callas, though I think always being compared to her, and being in her shadow, must have been very taxing. She is a great artist in her own right, and should be appreciated on her own terms. I love listening to her speak.
I don't think she felt that. Italian sopranos like her and Freni always spoke about Callas and Tebaldi with admiration and joy sharing the stage with them or even being able to work in the same era. It pushed them to be better and to specify their repertoire. Even Magda Olivero said she didn't sing Otello because Tebaldi had sung it too well. These singers always respected each other and I don't think they've ever felt in the shadow of somebody else they admired.
"Nedda is not a good girl. She doesn't deserve my voice." Lady Macbeth on the other hand....lol It's okay not to like a role, whether because of the character or the music. But don't give me that moral judgment BS as a reason. Lady Macbeth is a criminal, dare I say downright a psycho. Nedda is an angel compared to her. lol The difference is that as a character Lady Macbeth is more interesting and the music is way better. It's Verdi, enough said. Having said that, the only Verdi role Scotto could sing decently was Gilda. She was never a Verdi singer. In general, she had a very good timbre and fraseggio. She had a great career, mainly in US, so chapeau to that, but she was overrated, IMO. Scotto started as a soprano lirico leggero, and as such she was good. She could never become a great soprano drammatico d'agilità, despite her going in that direction. As for her comments about being a Callas admirer, I call BS. lol It is famous her behavior after la prima dei Vespri, during 1970-’71 season at La Scala, and the interview she gave after, whining about Callas who was a guest of La Scala's superintendent, and was sitting on his box. All that venom from Scotto towards Callas (attacking Callas on personal level too) just because the Loggione gave to Callas a thunderous applause at the second interval. The applause transformed into an ovation at the exit of via Filodrammatici, with the crowd of fans shouting "Maria, Maria". That didn't sit well with la "Diva" Scotto and she was all poison towards Callas. You can still find that interview on internet "Gli applausi si fanno a chi sta sulla scena!" is the title. When confronted by the loggionisti regarding that interview, not only she didn't deny it but she also said that the journalist had cut off some parts, and she even called them "finocchi", basically declaring war against the loggionisti callasiani, which obviously she couldn't win. When Scotto was back for la replica and would sing “Arrigo, ah parli a un core” the loggionisti reaction was "miao", and shouting at her “scema, Verdi non è Donizetti”. So by the end of December, la Scala had to changer her and Gencer was the new singer, and Scotto never sang at La Scala after than, apart from a concert by the end of June 1985.
