Pampanini, Rosetta

Rosetta Pampanini was born in Milan into a musical family. She initiallly trained to become a teacher but eventually decided to study voice. She was taught by the couple Emma and Lorenzo Molajoli and made her debut in 1920 at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome as Micaela. Subsequently she appeared at numerous Italian opera houses. See -> chronology. In the first years of her career she built up her repertory under Tullio Serafin’s guidance. Of great importance was her association with Pietro Mascagni who often conducted her in his opera Iris. Pampanini’s success in the role re-established the piece from 1898 in the contemporary repertoire. Another significant mentor was Arturo Toscanini. He conducted the revival of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at La Scala in 1925, with Rosetta Pampanini in the title role. The 12 performances turned out to be a complete triumph - not least because of the heroine whose artistry ensured that Madame Butterfly soon became one of the most popular operas. Not only did Pampanini help to establish Madame Butterfly, the role of Cio-Cio-San also made her to one of the most splendid Italian artists of the time. She remained at La Scala as long as Toscanini stayed there (until 1930), appearing in a number of world premieres of then contemporary operas as well as in her Puccini repertoire. She also toured with the Scala ensemble. Toscanini invited her to Berlin to sing Manon Lescaut and Madame Butterfly (1929). Covent Garden saw her in her Puccini parts. From 1926 she was a regular guest at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In the season 1931/32 she was engaged as Butterfly, Nedda and Mimì at the Chicago Opera, but was not reinvited later. Further performances at the opera houses of Vienna (1930-1932), Oslo (1933) and Prague (1935) followed. A special occasion was her performance of Mimì in a performance of La Bohème, conducted by Pietro Mascagni in Puccini’s home town Torre del Lago. From 1937 she turned to more dramatic roles such as Leonora in La Forza del destino, Aida and Maddalena. Rosetta Pampanini bade farewell to the stage in 1946. After her retirement she worked as a singing coach and died in 1973.

Year	Place (opera appearances)	Repertoire
1920	Rome	Micaela (debut)
1921	Turin	Siebel
1922	Biella, Tortona, Modena, Siena	Mimì, Desdemona
1923	Naples, Trieste, Novara	Graziosa in van Westerhout’s Colomba (Naples), Desdemona, Mimì, Iris
1924	Biella, Novara, Catania, Bergamo, Turin, Bologna, Modena	Iris, Mimì, Il Picolo Marat (Mascagni), Elsa in Lohengrin (in Italian)
1925	Padua, Mantova, Catania, Bergamo, Pavia, Livorno, La Scala	Desdemona, Mimì, Margherita (and Elena), Gesù in Vittadini’s Nazareth (Pavia), Cio-Cio-San, Iris
1926	Cremona,Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, La Scala	Mimì, Iris, Nedda, Liù, Cio-Cio-San, Sonia in Pedrollo’s Delitto e Castigo (at La Scala)
1927	La Scala, Turin, Monte Carlo, Novara, Genoa, Pesaro, Cesena, Mirandola, Ostiglia	Liù, Mimì, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Manon Lescaut, Nedda, Iris
1928	Piacenza, La Scala, Brescia, Covent Garden London, Venice, Fermo	Mimì, Liù, Fior di cielo in Bianchini’s Thien-Hoa (at La Scala), La Falce (Catalani), Cio-Cio-San, Nedda, Desdemona
1929	La Scala, Parma, Cannes, Naples, Rome, Florence, Berlin, Ravenna, San Felice sul Panaro, Cento, Biella, Pegognaga, Casalmaggiore, Bologna	Elsa, Manon Lescaut, Nedda, Desdemona, Mimì, Iris
1930	La Scala, Genoa, Cannes, Lecce, Barcellona, Schio, Torre del Lago, Finale Emilia, Vienna State Opera, Triest, Codogno, Parma, Rome	Mimì, Cio-Cio-San, Desdemona, Maddalena, Manon Lescaut
1931	Padua, Turin, Il Cairo, San Remo, Rome, Udine, Urbino, Vienna State Opera, Triest, Ostiglia, Livorno, Genoa, Siena, Torre del Lago, Viareggio, Naples, Reggio Emilia, Modena	Cio-Cio-San, Iris, Mimì, Maddalena
1932	Chicago, Boston, Venice, Rovigo, Pavia, Livorno, Turin, Vienna State Opera, Genoa, Corbola, Alexandria, Montecatini, Vigevano, Asti, Rome	Mimì, Nedda, Iris, Cio-Cio-San, Maddalena, Adriana Lecouvreur
1933	Novara, Triest, Venice, Turin, Modena, Biella, Udine, Covent Garden London, Vichy, Oslo, Corbola, Copparo, Badia Polesine, Casalmaggiore, Florence, Rome	Mimì, Wally, Manon Lescaut, Fedora, Desdemona, Cio-Cio-San, Tosca
1934	Bari, Piacenza, Verona, San Remo, Fiume, Oslo, Noto, Vichy, Bologna, Ferrara, Forli, Livorno, Stockholm, Upsala, Copenhagen, Bari	Cio-Cio-San, Manon Lescaut, Iris, Tosca, Maddalena, Mimì
1935	La Scala, Naples, Salerno, Venice, Padua, Prague, Genoa, Vienna (Hohe Warte), Vichy, Adria, Bologna, La Spezia, Bordeaux	Cio-Cio-San, Nedda, Mimì, Tosca, Maddalena
1936	Novara, Madrid, Pavia, Rome, Catania, Casale Monferrato, Gallarate, Terni, Adria, Fabriano, Faenza, Fano, Pola, Triest, Viterbo, Montecatini, Asti, Bordeaux, Vercelli, Piacenza	Adriana Leucouvreur, Mimì, Cio-Cio-San, Maddalena, Iris, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Fedora
1937	Naples, Cremona, Venice, La Scala, Padova, Pisa, Prato, Busto Arsizio, La Spezia, Venice, Casale Monferrato, Salerno, Foggia, Taranto, Petenza, Ancona, Rodi, Porto Recanati, Montecatini, Bologna, Rovigo, Monza, San Severo	Cio-Cio-San, Mimì, Iris, Maddalena, Tosca, Manon Lescaut
1938	Bari, Venice, Turin, Catania, Oporto, Treviso, San Giovanni Valdarno, Ancona, Triest, Montecatini, Zurich , Belgrad , Modena, Genoa	Cio-Cio-San, Maddalena, Mimì, Tosca, Maddalena, Leonora (Forza)
1939	Padua, Valdagno, Cagliari, Sassari, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Gorizia, Naples, Zara, Viterbo, Salso Maggiore, Como, Livorno, Bergamo, Ferrara, Tortona, Perugia, Foligno, Ravenna, Livorno, Florence	Mimì, Cio-Cio-San, Maddalena, Elena, Santuzza, Tosca
1940	Foggia, Madrid, Genova, Rome, Civitavecchia, Naples, Rimini, Turin, Intra, Pordenone, Como, Vercelli, Casale Montferato, La Scala, Fiume, Florence	Tosca, Santuzza, Mimì, Cio-Cio-San, Iris, Wally, Manon Lescaut, Desdemona
1941	Turin, Rome, Naples, San Remo, Savona, Varese, Imperia, Bari, Barcellona, Saragoza, Freiburg, Crema, La Spezia, Pesaro, Ancona, Tirana, Pisa, Martina Franca, Biella	Cio-Cio-San, Maddalena, Elena, Mimì, Santuzza, Tosca
1942	Rome, Bari, Turin, Lonigo, Livorno, Triest, Ascoli Piceno, Catania, Trento	Cio-Cio-San, Tosca, Fedora, Wally, Maddalena, Mimì, Santuzza
1943	Florence, Venice, Carpi, Adria, Ferrara, Fidenza, Pietra Santa, Castelmassa, Voghera, Milan (Teatro Nuovo)	Cio-Cio-San, Mimì, Maddalena, Santuzza
1944	Padua, Busto Arsizio, Pavia, Verona, Adria	Santuzza, Tosca, Cio-Cio-San
1945	Padua	Tosca
1946	Montecatini, Bellinzona (Switzerland)	Mimì, Tosca, Santuzza
1947	Pescara, Livorno	Tosca

Recordings:
La Voce e l’Arte di Rosetta Pampanini (wonderful edition, beautiful booklet in Italian, 200 pages, pictures)	TIMAClub (4 CD)
Recital (Arias of Gounod, Catalani, Giordano, Puccini, Zandonai, Pietri, Mascagni, Wagner, Verdi)	Preiser-LV
Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci (Molajoli 1930/Merli, Nessi, Galeffi, Vanelli)	Phonographe
Puccini - La Bohème (Molajoli 1928/Marini, Vanelli, Baracchi, Pasero, Baccaloni, Nessi)	Arkadia
Puccini - Madame Butterfly (Molajoli 1928/Granda, Velasquez, Vanelli)	Arkadia
Dino Borgoli (Duets)	Preiser-LV
Fernando Ciniselli (Duets)	Preiser-LV
Carlo Galeffi Vol. 2 (Duets)	Preiser-LV
Alessandro Granda (Duets)	Bongiovanni
Covent Garden on Record Vol. 4	Pearl
Great Voices at Teatro in Turin	Phonographe
La Scala di Toscanini 1921-1929	Grammofono 2000
Souvenirs from Verismo Operas Vol. 4	IRCC
Mike Richter’s Opera Page: The Record of Singing Vol. 3	CD-ROM

Rosette Pampanini was one of the most interesting and prolific Italian sopranos of the “veristic period”. The operas by Puccini, Giordano, Cilea, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Montemezzi and Zandonai demand for singers who are able to perform with strong sensitivity and rhetorical ability. Sopranos like Poli-Randaccio, dalla Rizza, Cobezzi, Oltrabella, Bruna Rasa, Favero, Cervi Caroli, Melis, Cigna, Zamboni, Scacciati, Tassinari etc. had much personality, but unfortunately, many of them lacked a sufficient singing technique. There was a little conception of legato, enunciation was affected and often unclear, the registers were not fully equalized, the chest register was carried up to G, the middle register remained comparatively weak, and to compensate for this they had a tendency to use too forceful an attack.

Rosetta Pampanini, like so many of her contemporaries, could not always resist the temptation to hoist the chest too high, but however, her singing had character with a variety of color and expression. She was one of the few sopranos of her generation who resisted the emphatic delivery including sobs and sighs.

The following file is one of Pampanini’s finest and most expressive achievements:

Chronology and all pictures - La Voce e L’Arte di Rosetta Pampanini, TIMAClub Vol 4