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	<title>leyla-gencer &amp;laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed</title>
	<link>http://wordpress.com/tag/leyla-gencer/</link>
	<description>Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "leyla-gencer"</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:02:43 +0000</pubDate>

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<title><![CDATA[La Gencer i el Poliuto del Liceu: In memoriam]]></title>
<link>http://ximo.wordpress.com/?p=2356</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2008 23:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ximo</dc:creator>
<guid>http://ximo.wordpress.com/?p=2356</guid>
<description><![CDATA[

El gener del any 1975 Juan Antonio Pamias va programar un Macbeth amb una soprano americana anomen]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://ximo.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/gencer.jpg"></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img style="vertical-align:middle;" src="http://ximo.wordpress.com/files/2008/05/gencer2.jpg" alt="" width="309" height="366" /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">El gener del any 1975 Juan Antonio Pamias va programar un Macbeth amb una soprano americana anomenada Marisa Galvany. L'èxit assolit va ser molt important i quan s'escolta la gravació sorprèn l’extraordinària força i les facultats d'aquella veu. Pamias, que era molt murri, la va contractar per la propera temporada, la 1975-76 per cantar la Paolina del <strong>Poliuto</strong> de<strong> Gaetano Donizetti</strong>, una òpera mítica per l’exhumació que en varen fer a la Scala, la Callas, Corelli i el Bastianini, i que al Liceu feia molts anys que no es programava.</span><!--more--></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">El rol de Paolina, exigent per la vocalitat i la tessitura ample de tota la partitura, requereix una típica soprano donizettiana, una dramàtic coloratura i la Galvany podia perfectament amb les exigències vocals.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Marisa Galvany, degut a problemes familiars amb un filla, va fer molt poca carrera a Europa i la temporada 1975-1976 no va venir. Pamias es va treure un as, i quin as, renoi.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Contractar a <strong>Leyla Gencer</strong>, la soprano turca que va fer quasi tota la seva carrera a Itàlia i a la Scala, havent fet tots els rols imaginables, era una proesa. Si la Galvany era bona, que ho era, la <strong>Gencer</strong> era millor, sobretot tenint en compte la carrera que portava a les espatlles i la categoria<strong> </strong>de les seves interpretacions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" style="vertical-align:middle;" src="http://ximo.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/elvellliceu1.jpg" alt="" width="195" height="136" /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">El 7,11 i 13 de desembre varen tenir lloc les representacions del Poliuto.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Dirigia un habitual per aquells anys, el mestre <strong>Giuseppe Morelli</strong> i la preciosa escena era de Renzo Frusca (a l'època recordo que em va</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> impactar molt, acostumats com estàvem als papers més rancis, al vell ciclorama dels festivals Wagner, aquell que els germans Wagner van obligar a fer per tal de que</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> pugues venir el festival de Bayreuth en la mítica visita del 55 i aquelles dues moquetes que alternaven els interiors i els exteriors, una verda i l'altre vermella). L’escena del <strong>Poliuto</strong> no era comparable al que veiem ara, però al menys hi havia un decorat corpori amb un gran escut i daurats, blancs i vermells, com correspon a una òpera ambientada en l'època del imperi romà. Ara potser la veuria i ho trobaria impossible, però en aquell moment i la meva experiència liceista a penes iniciada, recordo que em va impactar moltíssim.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Els cantants:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Severo: <strong>Vicente Sardinero</strong> (molts diuen que es la seva millor actuació al Liceu)<br />
Felice: <strong>Antoni Lluch</strong> (l'amic)<br />
Poliuto: <strong>Amadeo Zambon </strong>(sorprenent registre)<br />
Paolina: <strong>Leyla Gencer</strong><br />
Calliste: <strong>Ferruccio Mazzoli</strong><br />
Nearco: <strong>José Manzaneda</strong><br />
cristià: <strong>Massami Yamamoto</strong> (exotisme a tots nivells)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img class="alignleft" style="float:left;margin:1px;" src="http://ximo.wordpress.com/files/2008/05/portada1.jpg" alt="" width="178" height="178" /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">En la cua del carrer Sant Pau i havia un nerviosisme que jo no sabia apreciar, tothom parlava de la <strong>Gencer</strong> i jo, que quan començava a penes parlava, no com ara que a voltes resulto pesadíssim, parava les orelles doncs ho volia saber tot. Agafava una mica d'aquí i una mica d'allà i amb la il·lusió dels ignorants vaig apropar-me a una òpera que no coneixia de res, bé pràcticament no en coneixia cap i fixeu-se en les meves eleccions d'adolescent despitat: Estrena amb Billy Budd de Britten (per una foto que vaig veure al diari del muntatge de la Welhs National Opera que amb va deixar bocabadat. Després Lohengrin (la meva vida estava predestinada) i després una cosa més aviat "exòtica" com Rondalla d'Esparvers, la Clemenza de Tito i <strong>Poliuto</strong>. Per tant, la primera òpera italiana que vaig veure va ser aquesta i la primera soprano "italiana", la<strong> Gencer</strong>. D'això me'n he adonat ara, al hora de fer aquest record emocionat a la soprano turca que ens acaba de deixar.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Con que tot era nou jo no acabava mai de tancar la boca, però si recordo alguna cosa és el concertant "La sacrílega parola" i la stretta final "Lasciami in pace morire" on la <strong>Gencer</strong> acabava amb un re espectacular, d'un impacte que encara em dura, 35 anys després. Digueu-me pinyolaire, que no en sóc gaire (gens és mentida, a qui no li agrada un pinyol ben donat en el moment just i precís?)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">No hem de jutjar el fragment que us deixaré, ni tota l'òpera (si us la voleu baixar us deixo els enllaços), per la qualitat del so o el cor i l'orquestra del teatre o per escoltar més al debutant mestre Tribó (si no vaig errat va debutar com a mestre apuntador a l'any 1975) que al cantant, per la claca o per tants detalls que avui trobaríem inimaginables hores d'ara. Per a mi com per molta gent que varem viure aquells anys de penúries, l'òpera era això i és més, encara és això, doncs si hi ha veritat vocal i interpretativa, si l’emoció et recorre l'espinada descarregant constants mostres d'electricitat emotiva i si en acabar un acte el teatre s'enfonsa, és que allò ha funcionat. Potser al Amadeo Zambon avui el xiularíem, però us asseguro que aquell tenor em va deixar  clavat a la cadira. Ara el poso en discussió, és clar, però l'emoció d'aquells anys  allà està, per la història del teatre.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Escoltant la stretta del concertant, que tant recorda l'Aida verdiana, no em queda més remei que cridar <strong>VISCA L'ÒPERA, VISCA LA GENCER</strong>. La gravació és la de Radio Nacional del dia 13 de desembre de 1975<br />
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">[audio http://ximo.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/concertant.mp3]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Ara, escoltant una vegada més aquesta gravació, m'he emocionat. Per la <strong>Gencer</strong>, perquè han passat com si res 35 anys, perquè dins a les parets del <strong>Liceu</strong> he conegut a moltes persones increïbles i una absolutament imprescindible a la meva vida. Perquè en aquests 35 anys he aprés tot el que sé de l'òpera i perquè no hi ha teatre d'òpera millor en tot el món, em sabreu perdonar tots els que opineu d'altre manera, oi?.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Què un gaudiu ni que sigui una mil·lèsima part del que ho he gaudit jo.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/115908442/CD1_Poliuto.mp3">CD1</a></strong>: Acte 1, primera part Acte 2on.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/115913291/CD2_Poliuto.mp3">CD2</a></strong>: Acte 2on final i acte 3er.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Leyla Gencer]]></title>
<link>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2542</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2008 14:42:04 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>acturca</dc:creator>
<guid>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2542</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Independent (UK),  May 15th, 2008
Elizabeth Forbes
The Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer became one o]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Independent (UK),  May 15th, 2008</p>
<p>Elizabeth Forbes</p>
<p>The Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer became one of the most loved and admired operatic idols in Italy during the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.<!--more--> Although she sang all over Europe and America, from London to Vienna, from San Francisco to Buenos Aires, it was in Italy, at La Scala, Milan, at the San Carlo, Naples, at La Fenice, Venice, at the opera houses of Rome, Florence, Turin, Trieste and many other cities, that she spent the main part of her career, singing a very wide repertory whose core consisted of the works of Donizetti and Verdi. A singing actress of great expressive power, she used her voice as a weapon in her dramatic armoury. That did not mean that she could not, when appropriate, sing with great gentleness and beauty of tone.</p>
<p>She was born Leyla Ceyrekgil in Istanbul in 1924. Her father was Turkish, her mother Polish and she was educated at an Italian high school and liceo. She studied at the Ankara Conservatory with the Spanish coloratura Elvira de Hidalgo, and in 1946 married a banker, Ibrahim Gencer.</p>
<p>Leyla Gencer made her operatic debut in 1950 in Ankara as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana. After further study with the Italian soprano Giannina Arangi-Lombardi and the baritone Apollo Granforte, she went to Italy, where she made her debut in 1953 at the Arena Flegrea in Naples, again singing Santuzza. Later in the season she sang the title role of Madama Butterfly at the San Carlo.</p>
<p>In 1956 Gencer went to San Francisco, where she made her debut in the title role of Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini. During the next two seasons she also sang the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Violetta in La traviata, Massenet's Manon, Gilda in Rigoletto and Elisabeth in Don Carlos. Elisabeth would become one of her finest Verdi roles, which she repeated with great success at La Scala (1960), the Vienna State Opera and at Covent Garden (1962), where she sang the role in an emergency when Gre Brouwenstijn became ill. Gencer was in London rehearsing Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, which should have been her debut role.</p>
<p>Gencer first appeared at La Scala in 1957, singing Madame Lidoine, the new prioress, in the world premiere of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites. Later that year she sang Leonora in La forza del destino, another favourite Verdi role that suited her passionate temperament extremely well. In 1958 she took part in another premiere, of Pizzetti's Assassinio nella Cattedrale, based on T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, in which she sang the First Woman of Canterbury. The opera was conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who became a mentor to the soprano throughout her career. He conducted her as Maria in Pizzetti's Lo straniero (1969) in Naples.</p>
<p>Gencer sang two early Verdi roles, Lucrezia in I due Foscari in Venice (1957) and Lida in La battaglia di Legnano in Florence (1959) before returning to 20th-century opera with Renata in Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel at the 1959 Spoleto Festival. In 1960/61 she sang again at La Scala, as Paolina in Donizetti's Poliuto, taking over from Maria Callas, and as Lisa in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades. Her Lisa was an unexpected success, and she sang it again at Turin in 1963. Meanwhile she sang her first attempt at the title role of Bellini's Norma at Barcelona in 1962, repeating it the following season at the Coló*in Buenos Aires.</p>
<p>As related, Gencer made an emergency debut at Govent Garden in Don Carlos in January 1962, before she sang Donna Anna in February in Franco Zeffirelli's new production of Don Giovanni. But Mozart was not one of Gencer's strongest suits: far better was Donizetti's Anna Bolena, which she sang at Glyndebourne in 1965, conducted by Gavazzeni. Anna was always one of Gencer's finest roles and even in 1977, not long before she retired, she gave a wonderful performance of it in Rome.</p>
<p>Otherwise, during the Sixties Gencer sang Elena in Jerusalem (the Paris version of Verdi's I Lombardi) and the title role of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda at La Fenice in Venice; Queen Elizabeth I in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux in Naples; and Aida at La Scala and in the Verona Arena, where she was a great favourite. Gluck's Alceste was much applauded in Rome in 1967, even better liked at La Scala in 1968 and liked best of all at La Scala in1972, with Gavazzeni in the pit.</p>
<p>In the last decade of her career, Gencer had several new roles that were, vocally and dramatically, very well suited to her abilities. One of these was Ponchielli's La Gioconda, but one small point annoyed purists: Gioconda describes herself as blonde, but Gencer wore her own black hair. Another very popular role was the heroine of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, which she first sang at the Florence Maggio musicale and then in Naples. Verdi's Lady Macbeth, which Gencer sang under Gavazzeni's baton in Venice, and later in Rome and Florence, scored even greater triumphs.</p>
<p>Other Donizetti roles in which Gencer was greatly admired included Lucrezia Borgia, which gave the soprano scope for every conceivable emotional expression. She sang it first in Naples, then in Rome, Bergamo, Dallas and Florence; Antonina in Belisario in Venice, Bergamo and Naples; Caterina Cornaro in Naples and Pauline in Les Martyrs (the Paris version of Poliuto) in Bergamo were all great rarities, very well sung.</p>
<p>But Gencer's finest performance in the Seventies was not in an opera by Donizetti, but in Mayr's Medea in Corinto in Naples. In very good voice she was, as always, totally involved in the drama going on around her.</p>
<p>Leyla Ceyrekgil, opera singer: born Istanbul 10 October 1924; married 1946 Ibrahim Gencer (deceased); died Milan, Italy 9 May 2008.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Leyla Gencer]]></title>
<link>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2528</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2008 22:44:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>acturca</dc:creator>
<guid>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2528</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Le Monde (France), 14 mai 2008, 21
Renaud Machart
La soprano turque a souffert du statut de légende]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Le Monde (France), 14 mai 2008, 21</p>
<p>Renaud Machart</p>
<p>La soprano turque a souffert du statut de légende vivante de sa rivale, Maria Callas. Les témoignages de son art ont le plus souvent été captés sur le vif<!--more--></p>
<p>Comme il est coutume de dire que la contralto britannique Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953) occulta l'importance de sa consoeur hollandaise Aafje Heinis, ou que la carrière de la soprano autrichienne Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006) brima celle de Lisa della Casa, il est souvent prétendu que la soprano turque Leyla Gencer, qui vient de mourir, à Milan, samedi 10 mai, à l'âge de 79 ans, a souffert du statut de légende vivante de sa rivale Maria Callas (1923-1977). Comble de malchance pour Gencer, une autre rivale fameuse, Renata Tebaldi (1922-2004), s'interposa entre elle et Callas... Mais si le chant essentiellement apollinien de Tebaldi ne pouvait se comparer par sa nature à celui de Callas, l'engagement dramatique de Gencer le rappelait en bien des points.</p>
<p>A l'époque de ses débuts à la Scala, dans la première mondiale, en italien, des Dialogues des carmélites, de Francis Poulenc, en 1957, Leyla Gencer était souvent affectée aux deuxièmes distributions de l'illustre maison milanaise, tandis que Callas régnait sur les premières. Mais " la Diva turque ", qui avait fait ses débuts à Ankara, en 1950, aura chanté un répertoire plus large (72 rôles), qui, outre le bel canto italien (avec une prédilection pour Donizetti), comprenait des créations et des opéras du XXe siècle ainsi que beaucoup de raretés oubliées de l'opéra italien du XIXe siècle qu'elle servait avec un respect scrupuleux du texte et de ses indications. Gencer partageait avec Callas un caractère trempé et ombrageux et les anecdotes à propos de ses " caprices " ne manquent pas.</p>
<p>En dépit d'une rivalité entretenue surtout par les partisans de la Grecque et de la Turque, Gencer reconnaissait cependant, dans un entretien en anglais transcrit sur le site Internet www.belcantosociety.org [http://www.belcantosociety.org] que Callas " avait la voix la plus imparfaite du monde, mais cela ne veut rien dire. Elle était pleine de défauts, mais elle avait le feu sacré. Elle était merveilleuse. Qui l'égale aujourd'hui ? ".</p>
<p><strong>Un chant engagé</strong></p>
<p>Si Callas est aujourd'hui aussi connue que du temps où elle chantait sur scène, c'est notamment en raison d'un legs discographique important. Leyla Gencer a quant à elle peu enregistré en studio, et les témoignages de son art sont le plus souvent captés sur le vif et publiés dans des éditions pirates, en opéras séparés ou en coffrets anthologiques. On trouve beaucoup d'extraits filmés, certains publiés officiellement (par la firme américaine Vai), d'autres reproduits par des particuliers sur des sites Web, dont YouTube.</p>
<p>Le chant de Gencer était extrêmement engagé, et ses incarnations dramatiques allaient parfois à l'encontre de la beauté du son. Elle manquait d'agilité, mais le timbre était superbe et sa musicalité en aura touché plus d'un. Sa qualité première est demeurée un aigu pianissimo dont elle a parfois abusé, surtout lorsque le tonus de la voix lui manquait et que le vibrato la gagnait dans les nuances fortes. La chanteuse reconnaissait d'ailleurs qu'elle avait donné " davantage de mauvaises représentations que de bonnes ".</p>
<p>On l'entend ainsi se produire, à 50 ans, à l'Opéra de San Francisco, avec la voix d'une chanteuse en toute fin de carrière. Mais ce document, reproduit sur le site <a href="http://">www.youtube.com</a>, est, comme tant d'autres, enregistré dans des conditions précaires et donc sujet à caution. Gencer ne se retirera de la scène lyrique qu'en 1985 et ne donnera plus que des concerts, jusqu'en 1992. Ensuite, elle s'est consacrée à l'enseignement, notamment à la Scala de Milan, où elle fut directrice du programme pour les jeunes chanteurs à l'instigation du chef d'orchestre Riccardo Muti.</p>
<p>Après une crémation à Milan, le 12 mai, ses cendres devaient être dispersées dans la baie du Bosphore, dans son pays natal.</p>
<p>10 octobre 1928, Naissance à Istanbul</p>
<p>1953, Débuts italiens à Naples</p>
<p>1957, Débuts à la Scala de Milan : rôle de Madame Lidoine lors de la création mondiale des " Dialogue des Carmélites " de Francis Poulenc</p>
<p>10 mai 2008, Mort à Milan</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Leyla Gencer: A Turkish soprano of great dramatic power, she excelled in a wide range of Italian opera]]></title>
<link>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2552</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 14:54:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>acturca</dc:creator>
<guid>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2552</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Guardian (UK), May 13th, 2008, pg. 34
Patrick O&#8217;Connor
Leyla Gencer, who has died aged 79,]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Guardian (UK), May 13th, 2008, pg. 34</p>
<p>Patrick O'Connor</p>
<p>Leyla Gencer, who has died aged 79, was the greatest Turkish opera singer of the 20th century and a singing actor of formidable power and individuality.<!--more--> Although she came from what she herself referred to as a "Muslim and oriental" background, she had the good fortune, as a student in Istanbul, to study with the famous Italian dramatic soprano Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, so that when she went to Italy in 1953, she was thoroughly grounded in the traditions of Italian opera.</p>
<p>Gencer was a very beautiful woman, with large dark eyes, a wide, generous mouth and a natural command of the stage. Born Leyla Ceyrekgil in Istanbul, the daughter of a Turkish Muslim father and a Polish Catholic mother, she married Ibrahim Gencer, a wealthy banker, in 1946; he eventually predeceased her. She made her debut as Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at the open-air summer festival in Naples in 1953, and remained a particular favourite with the Neapolitans.</p>
<p>Her early successes were in verismo roles - Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Francesca da Rimini (by Zandonai). By 1957 she had been engaged by La Scala, Milan, where she created the role of the New Prioress in the world premiere of Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmelites, and shortly after sang the title role in La Traviata at the Vienna Staatsoper, under Herbert von Karajan.</p>
<p>Throughout her career, Gencer had a very wide repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi, Gluck and Mozart to Verdi, Ponchielli and Puccini. During her career she sang virtually every soprano role in Verdi's operas, but it was especially in the revival of bel-canto works by Bellini, Donizetti and Pacini that she made her mark. To some extent, Gencer shot to fame in the immediate aftermath of the end of Maria Callas's Italian career - Gencer followed Callas as Anna Bolena at La Scala, and in the role of Paolina in Donizetti's Poliuto - the last new part Callas undertook. As Queen Elizabeth I of England, first in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, and then in Rossini's Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra, Gencer preceded Montserrat Caballe and Beverly Sills, who later recorded the roles.</p>
<p>Gencer's voice was not a natural dramatic soprano - she sang all the coloratura roles, such as Lucia, Elvira (Puritani), Amina, Gilda. The sound had a strange, smokey quality which could - and quite often did - turn sour and detracted from the pleasure of her singing. "We're in great luck tonight," said the impresario Denny Dayviss, when I met her at the San Carlo in Naples in 1972, "Leyla-gal's in great voice." The opera was Donizetti's Caterina Cornaro, in which Gencer was partnered, as often before, by Giacomo Aragall. Gencer tore into the role of the daughter of St Mark, the Venetian girl who becomes Queen of Cyprus, her voice ranging from fiercely declaimed dramatic recitative right up to a ringing high E with which she capped the first-act finale.</p>
<p>Although Gencer's career was mostly in Italy, she appeared in the United States, where she made her debut in San Francisco as Lucia in 1957, returning there, as well as to Chicago and Dallas. John Ardoin described her voice in a memorable Lucrezia Borgia in 1974, as "poignant, compelling" and mentioned the "strange colours and deep pathos of her art". In England she was heard at Glyndebourne as the Countess in Figaro, and as Anna Bolena. At Covent Garden she was Donna Anna in Zeffirelli's 1962 production of Don Giovanni, then Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos. Gencer's most memorable UK appearances were undoubtedly in the title role of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, at the Edinburgh Festival in 1969. The sparks that flew on stage in the confrontation - historically absurd but dramatically thrilling - when Gencer as Mary Stuart ripped off her glove and flung it in the face of Shirley Verrett as Elizabeth I at the words, "Vil bastarda" will surely live in the memory of all who witnessed it.</p>
<p>As a recitalist Gencer also had a wide repertoire of 19th and early 20th-century songs. Some of her later appearances were in recital in Paris at the Athenee in the 1980s, when a young French public, who had never had the opportunity to see her on stage, proved receptive to her high-flown style and hailed her as the greatest living prima donna. Gencer had no career whatsoever as a recording artist, but many of her broadcasts from Italian radio have now been issued on disc and are a fine memorial to her voice and dramatic ability. Especially noteworthy are performances of Verdi's I due Foscari (under Serafin), Donizetti's Belisario (from Venice in 1970) and Simon Boccanegra, from the 1959 Salzburg Festival, in which she is partnered by Tito Gobbi.</p>
<p>Gencer said of herself: "I am a fatalist and am instantly resigned to adversity, my temperament is gentle and I am incapable of putting up a fight for anything." None of this was evident on stage, where she projected a suberb sense of dramatic power. In 1987 she was the first recipient of the Donizetti Prize awarded by the city of Bergamo, and in 1995 the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition was established in Istanbul. In recent years she was artistic director of La Scala's academy for advanced courses for opera singers.</p>
<p>Leyla Gencer, soprano, born October 10 1928; died May 9 2008</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Leyla Gencer, Turkish-Born Soprano and a Popular Star of La Scala]]></title>
<link>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2551</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 14:44:54 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>acturca</dc:creator>
<guid>http://acturca.wordpress.com/?p=2551</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The New York Times (USA), May 13th, 2008, pg. 6
By Margalit Fox
Leyla Gencer, an operatic soprano wh]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The New York Times (USA), May 13th, 2008, pg. 6</p>
<p>By Margalit Fox</p>
<p>Leyla Gencer, an operatic soprano who was among the last of a generation of larger-than-life divas that included Maria Callas, died on Friday at her home in Milan.<!--more--> As befits a prima donna, Ms. Gencer's exact age was shrouded in carefully arranged mystery; she was believed to be either 79 or 83.</p>
<p>The cause was heart failure and respiratory problems, La Scala and the Turkish State Opera and Ballet told The Associated Press. Information on survivors was not made public.</p>
<p>Popularly known as La Diva Turca, Ms. Gencer performed in opera houses throughout Europe and the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s. Although her major career was in Europe -- she sang at La Scala in Milan for many years -- she was also admired by fans, and at least some critics, on this side of the Atlantic.</p>
<p>Ms. Gencer (pronounced GHEN-djer) sang more than 70 roles but was most closely associated with the bel canto style of Donizetti. Her singing was characterized by a burning intensity but was also widely praised for its exquisite pianissimo -- the attainment of maximum audibility at minimum volume that eludes even many fine singers.</p>
<p>Though Ms. Gencer appeared on many of the world's major stages, among them Covent Garden in London, she never sang at the Metropolitan Opera. She did not make her New York debut until 1973, when she sang the title role in Donizetti's little-known opera ''Caterina Cornaro'' in a semi-staged production at Carnegie Hall by the Opera Theater of New Jersey.</p>
<p>By this time, Ms. Gencer was 50, give or take. Reviewing her performance in The New York Times, Harold C. Schonbergwrote: ''Her voice shows signs of the abuse that comes from overwork and an insufficient technique. She clearly was an experienced singer of the old arm-waving school, and the middle range of her voice had moments of appealing beauty. But the top is virtually gone, and fortissimo high notes emerged in ear-splitting yells.''</p>
<p>Leyla Ceyrekgil was born in Istanbul on Oct. 10. Ms. Gencer was publicly coy about the year; sources give it variously as 1924 or 1928. The daughter of a Polish mother and a Turkish father, she grew up on the city's Asian side.</p>
<p>From an early age, according to published accounts, she showed signs of the intensity that would serve her well. As Stefan Zucker wrote in a biographical article on the Web site of the Bel Canto Society (www.belcantosociety.org [http://www.belcantosociety.org]), ''Her mother pulled her out of a lyceum at 16 because she had fallen in love with a 34-year-old Polish architect with whom she read Plato.''</p>
<p>Leyla enrolled briefly at the Istanbul Conservatory before leaving to study privately in Turkey with the noted Italian soprano Giannina Arangi-Lombardi. She later studied with the Italian baritone Apollo Granforte.</p>
<p>In 1946, she married Ibrahim Gencer, a banker. ''She was temperamental and difficult,'' Mr. Zucker wrote, ''but he loved her.''</p>
<p>In 1950, Ms. Gencer made her operatic debut in Ankara, as Santuzza in Mascagni's ''Cavalleria Rusticana.'' She made her La Scala debut in 1957, as Madame Lidoine in the world premiere of Francis Poulenc's ''Dialogues of the Carmelites.'' Her United States debut was with the San Francisco Opera in 1956, in the title role in Ricardo Zandonai's ''Francesca da Rimini.''</p>
<p>Ms. Gencer's other roles included Verdi (Amelia in ''Un Ballo in Maschera,'' Violetta in ''La Traviata,'' Leonora in ''Il Trovatore'' and Aida), Mozart (the Countess in ''The Marriage of Figaro'' and Donna Elvira in ''Don Giovanni'') and title roles in Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor,'' Bellini's ''Norma'' and Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly.''</p>
<p>In 1995, an international voice competition named for Ms. Gencer was inaugurated in Turkey.</p>
<p>Pre-empted by better-known contemporaries like Callas and Renata Tebaldi, Ms. Gencer did not have a contract with a major commercial record label. But her voice traveled the globe many times over in bootleg recordings, earning her the nickname the Pirate Queen.</p>
<p>If she ''never made a lira'' from these recordings, as Ms. Gencer told Opera News in 2003, they had other compensations.</p>
<p>''All the young people know me,'' she said at the time. ''They write me long letters. They tell me: 'It's as if we were in the theater. We see you. We hear you through your discs as if we were there.' This is a great miracle!''</p>
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<title><![CDATA[HA MORT LEYLA GENCER]]></title>
<link>http://ximo.wordpress.com/?p=2309</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 1969 21:59:59 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ximo</dc:creator>
<guid>http://ximo.wordpress.com/?p=2309</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
DESCANSI EN PAU
LEYLA GENCER Estambul, 10 d&#8217;octubre de 1928 - Milà, 10 de maig de 2008

Ha m]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://ximo.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/leyla_gencer.gif"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2310 aligncenter" src="http://ximo.wordpress.com/files/2008/05/leyla_gencer.gif" alt="" width="371" height="312" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>DESCANSI EN PAU</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>LEYLA GENCER</strong> Estambul, 10 d'octubre de 1928 - Milà, 10 de maig de 2008</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Ha mort la soprano que ho va cantar tot i bé. Sempre a l’ombra de Maria Callas ha fet una carrera llarguíssima i plena de interpretacions memorables.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>En aquesta improvisada crònica<span> </span>a l’espera d’un post com cal</span><!--more--><span>, us deixo a la <strong>Gencer</strong> cantant la darrera escena de la Lady Macbeth a Palermo a l’any 1960.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Al <strong>Liceu</strong> la recordarem sempre per la increible Paolina del Poliuto (Donizetti) del 7, 11 i 13 de desembre de 1975, per bé que va debutar al teatre en la inauguració de la temporada 1962-1963 en la Norma.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">[audio http://ximo.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/leyla-gencer.mp3]</p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>ENTRADES RELACIONADES:</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://ximo.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/la-gencer-i-el-poliuto-del-liceu-in-memoriam/">Leyla Gencer i el Poliuto del Liceu</a></strong></li>
</ul>
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