Mirella Freni (b. 1935) made her professional debut as Micaela
in Bizet’s Carmen at the young age of twenty on 2 February
1955 in her native town of Modena, Italy. By one of those quirks
of statistical fate she was born in the same town and in the
same year as Luciano Pavarotti. I have seen it both stated,
and denied, that they shared the same wet nurse a fact she confirms
in this film (Ch.2). That said, she does not repeat the statement
earlier attributed to her that you can tell who got most
of the milk!
The film opens with a black and white clip of her singing Mimi
from La Bohème. The part became her signature role which
she sang all over the world. Memorably she made a recording
of it alongside her erstwhile wet nurse companion for Decca
under Karajan (Decca 421 049-2) who became one of her favourite
conductors. We get to see a clip of Freni and Pavarotti singing
La Bohème together in their hometown in 1967 when the
audience clap at her entrance (Ch.3). There’s another from twenty-one
years later from the San Francisco Opera (Ch.4). Before this,
in a mixture of narrative and excerpt, Freni, looking chubbier
of face than of old, talks about driving from home in Modena
to Mantua for lessons from teacher, Ettore Campogalliani who
was a great influence on her for much of her career.
After a gap for motherhood she built her career via the Italian
provinces, Amsterdam, Glyndebourne and Covent Garden before
her debut, aged twenty-seven, at short notice, at La Scala as
Nannetta (Ch.4). Her main debut at La Scala was as Mimi in a
filmed Zeffirelli production under Karajan; it’s now available
on DVD, singly (DG 073 4071) or as one of a trio of Puccini
operas (DG 00440 073 4417 GH). Karajan’s brief contribution
(Ch.8) has some still photographs of her as Aida. The major
contribution to the brief survey of her stage career comes from
Domingo with whom she sang, he suggests, more than any other
tenor (Ch.7). It includes a brief clip from the live performances
of Verdi’s Ernani at La Scala in 1982. It was a production
she shared with her second husband the Bulgarian bass Nicolai
Ghiaurov (1929-2004) as Silva. She talks about their thirty-five
years together and how he coached her in Russian for Rachmaninov’s
Still Waters. This coaching held her in good stead for
her late assumptions in Eugene Onegin, The Queen of
Spades and The Maid of Orleans.
Freni’s meeting with Callas and the debacle of her La Scala
performances as Violetta are not skimped (Ch.6). Although no
mention is made of the success she had in the role later at
Covent Garden, extracts from the film she later made in that
role, despite lip sync problems, are appealing. A sound version
is reviewed
elsewhere. The memorable evening Freni partnered Domingo in
the first ever live transmission from La Scala’s opening night
with her singing Desdemona to his Otello is a delight. I would
love to see more of this. The tapes must exist somewhere as
must those of succeeding opening nights such as that featuring
Caballé as Norma.
Particularly interesting to the lover of singing is Mirella
in the recording studio assaying Core n’grato, her keen
ear and professionalism clearly to be seen and heard (Ch.9).
Also not to be lost sight of is her current work in supporting
and giving master classes in the Modena conservatoire - established
in what was the maternity home where she was born. In an extended
interview, filmed in the Teatro Comunale in Modena, she speaks
about her extraordinary career and the constant touring demands
(ch.10). She recounts eating spaghetti before every performance;
she now cannot stand it in the house!
Among the many eulogistic interviews, those with Domingo and
the director Pugelli are the most interesting. They afford an
insight into an outstanding lyric soprano who never played the
diva yet maintained the highest professional standards for fifty
years.
Robert J Farr
Mirella Freni (soprano) 
DVD
101 519 [58:00] 