Obituaries: LEYLA GENCER

Endowed with a dramatic coloratura voice memorable for its thrust, force and an upper register often deployed in a haunting pianissimo, Gencer had a rather idiosyncratic career: unfairly labeled as something of a Callas imitator because of the breadth of repertoire that the two shared, Gencer never...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOpera news Vol. 73; no. 2; p. 65
Main Author Wasserman, Adam
Format Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Metropolitan Opera Guild, Incorporated 01.08.2008
Subjects
Deaths
Musicians & conductors
Opera
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Summary:Endowed with a dramatic coloratura voice memorable for its thrust, force and an upper register often deployed in a haunting pianissimo, Gencer had a rather idiosyncratic career: unfairly labeled as something of a Callas imitator because of the breadth of repertoire that the two shared, Gencer never made a single commercial recording; her voice was preserved for posterity instead on a spate of pirate recordings of live performances - a fact that earned the soprano the sobriquet "the Pirate Queen." In fact, Gencer hinted that it was American critics' insistence on the qualities of a voce pura that prevented her from finding greater success in the U.S. The soprano illuminated the rationale behind her distinctively dramatic approach to bel canto works in a 2003 OPERA NEWS interview: For me, Donizetti is a very great composer of the nineteenth century, who has never been understood, never had his proper value.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Obituary-1
content type line 24
SourceType-Magazines-1
ISSN:0030-3607
1938-1506