La Divina...
Claudia Muzio
Little did Carlo Muzio imagine the influence his work would have on his daughter, Claudia, as he and his mistress (1), Giovanna, took the little girl with them from one theater to another as they fulfilled their obligations—he as stage manager at the Metropolitan, Covent Garden, Teatro San Carlo and other theaters; Giovanna, a somewhat accomplished singer, as a member of the choir. Born in Pavia on February 7, 1889, Claudia Muzio grew up in this privileged musical environment, which unbeknown to anyone led her to one of the greatest singing careers in the Twentieth Century. Her first music lessons came from her mother, and in 1908, she took piano and harp lessons from Annetta Casaloni. Once, a famous singer (2), Casaloni, impressed with her student’s singing abilities suggested the young woman take voice lessons, and against her father’s wishes, Muzio went to Milan to study with Elettra Callery-Viviani.
Carlo Muzio would change his mind and two years later, in 1910, he had much to be proud when he accompanied his daughter to Arezzo, where she made her professional debut. On January 15, 1910, Muzio sang at the Teatro Petrarca, when she replaced an indisposed soprano in Massenet’s Manon. Within two years Muzio conquered every Italian city where she performed: from Messina to Milan, and in operas as diverse as Rigoletto, Faust, Otello, Melenis, and Promessi Spossi, to Tosca and Traviata—these last two roles would forever be associated with Muzio’s name. London beckoned her for a series of performances and on May 6, 1914 Muzio made her Covent Garden debut in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. The critics found her “voluptuous, seductive, defiant, passionate and tender…(Pall Mall Gazette).” In London, Muzio sang in Mefistofeles, Flastaff, Otello, Bohême, and Tosca, which she sang with “such power that she brought down the house (Musical Times).”
Plans for a 1917 New York debut were advanced when Gatti-Casazza, the Metropolitan Opera manager, found himself without two of his leading sopranos in 1916: Lucrezia Bori had taken time off to heal nodes in her throat, and Emmy Destinn was under house arrest in Bohemia for political propaganda against Austria. Other sopranos had been considered but were found to be inadequate, or a political liability because of the Great War.
Richard Aldrich, writing in the New York Times, said of Muzio’s debut in Puccini’s Tosca, on December 4, 1916, “she was always willing to sacrifice vocal display to the need of coloring a phrase to suit the dramatic intention of the moment. [Claudia Muzio] was enthusiastically received by the audience…” and the critic for the Morning Telegraph found her acting to be the finest ever to be “seen on the Metropolitan stage…”
At first, Muuzio's association with the Metropolitan was a good one. She sang an opening night, Aida in 1918 with Caruso (3), as well as in the revival of Le Prophete, the world premiere of Il Tabarro (4), and the house premieres of Eugene Onegin, Loreley, and Andrea Chenier--but it appears that Gatti-Casazza had quickly tired of the tall, dark haired beauty. "As for Muzio, I don't believe I'll rehire her." Thus opens a letter Gatti-Casazza wrote to his colleague at La Scala, Angelo Scandiani. The general manager at the Metropolitan goes on to say that Claudia, "who in the past was good-natured and obliging, as well as in command of a varied repertoire, has partly lost her head...her success in buenos Aires and Mexico went to her head...[and because Maria Jeritza's] indisputable triumph ...has put her in an inferior position she cannot bear." (5) As with most of Muzio's life and career there is no record of her thoughts on her departure from the Metropolitan, though the facts indicate that by 1922 Muzio's status at the opera company had dimished and by the end of the season her contract was not renewed. This may have come as a surprise to the general public, but not to Muzio who had been negotiating with other opera companies. Two days after her final performance with the Metropolitan she signed on to sing with the Chicago Civic Opera, where artistic conditions were more favorable.
Gatti-Casazza was not too far from the truth when he spoke of Muzio’s success in Latin America. She made a triumphant debut in Buenos Aires on June 18, 1919 in the title role of Catalani’s Loreley, and ten days later, when she sang Tosca, the reviewers ran out of superlatives. Aida, Madame Sans Gêne, Manon Lescaut, Mefistofeles, La Bohème and a special concert in which she sang the first act of Pagliaci rounded up her first season in Buenos Aires. The city was smitten with Muzio, speaking of “La Divina” and no one else.
Muzio sang at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires almost every consecutive (7) season after her debut until 1928, returning five years later in 1933 to sing in Traviata, Andrea Chenier, and La Forza del Destino. There was talk of vocal decline, but Muzio’s performance in La Forza del Destino has been described as the most perfect in the history of the Colón. Muzio returned in 1934 when she sang in the America’s premier of Refice’s Cecilia, an opera written for her, and Respighi’s La Fiamma. There had been some doubts about the success of Respighi’s latest opera, but a Muzio performance was always a guaranteed sellout and on the night of the fourth performance, with the composer in the audience, she received forty curtain calls at the end of the second act. Muzio returned to Buenos Aires for the last time in 1935 for a series of radio programs and theater concerts.
Besides Buenos Aires, Latin America welcomed Muzio in Rosario, Mexico City, Montevideo, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. Each city vying with the Argentinean capital for the singer’s talents, but it was Buenos Aires where she was, and still is, most appreciated and adored—and she reciprocated. In total she sang 232 performances in 23 operas over a period of 11 seasons, the most of any company associated with her.
In Chicago, Muzio made her “downtown” (8) debut on December 7, 1922 as the slave princess in Aida, and within nine days she had conquered the city after performing in Il Trovatore, Pagliacci, and the title role in Tosca on December 16, 1922. Muzio was a complete success and Chicago, too, fell under her spell. Her performance of Canio’s adulterous wife in a later performance prompted a reviewer to write, “Her Nedda is …a living breathing creature so clearly indicated by the score.” (9)
The Chicago Opera gave Muzio the opportunity to re-introduce a number of operas, which for one reason or another had not been performed by the opera company in many years—Lorely, Manon Lescaut, La Cena delle Beffe—in addition to a variety of roles to showcase her versatility as a singer of great emotional intensity. While in Chicago she sang many of her favorite roles: the title roles in Aida, Tosca, and Traviata, Fiora in Amore dei Tre Re, Nedda, Santuzza, and Leonora in La Forza del Destino. At the end of the regular season, the Chicago Opera went on an extensive tour covering, at times, over ten thousand miles and visiting cities as far away as Boston, Miami, San Antonio, Seattle and points in between. It was during one of these tours that Muzio cancelled her upcoming season of 1928 when her mother became ill. This would be the only season she would not sing in Chicago during her ten-year affiliation with the opera company, which ended when the company fell victim to the depression in 1932.
In spite of these hard times, the San Francisco Opera had embarked on the construction of its permanent home, the War Memorial Opera House. Gaetano Merola, the company’s director, had known Muzio from her earlier association with the opera company. She first sang in San Francisco on September 22, 1924, as Maddalena in Puccini’s Andrea Chenier with Gigli and De Luca, returning to San Francisco in 1925, 1926, and in 1932 for the opening of the War Memorial Opera House.
Patrons’ requests for tickets were denied as the performance had been sold out for several days prior to opening night on October 15, 1932. Those who could not see the performance in the house, watched the spectacle outside the theater “from the west steps and balustrades of the illuminated City Hall…Every local newspaper covered the event in copious detail… the women wore slender dresses…purchased at the finest couturiers in Paris, from Paquin and Worth to Vionnet and Chanel…Muzio, the Tosca of the evening, had also shopped at Worth in Paris for her lavish costumes.” (10)
Muzio also sang in Europe, mainly in Italy, though she also sang in Paris and Monte Carlo. Rome would welcome her at the Teatro Reale dell’Opera where she was revered for her performances in Norma, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, Traviata, and Andrea Chenier.
