IL CIRCOLO NAMES VIRGINIA ZEANI WOMAN OF-THE-YEAR 2012

Virginia Zeani

IL CIRCOLO is proud to announce that it will be honoring Virginia Zeani as Woman-of-the-Year 2012. Helen Persson and Philip Whitacre are the Honorary Chairs for the evening. The award will be celebrated at the 36th Anniversary Gala, “Canta…che ti Passa” (sing and all your troubles go away) March 18, 2012 at The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida, in the Circle Room with a 6:00pm cocktail reception and 7:00pm Gourmet Dinner and Dancing featuring the Gino De Marco Orchestra.

The prestigious designation is awarded annually to one who has promoted Italian culture through exhibiting special accomplishments and outstanding qualities, civic affiliations and associations; education and expertise. IL CIRCOLO’S mission is to preserve and promote the Italian Culture through Education, Art and Music. The funds raised at this event will go to students and institutions who contribute to Il Circolo’s mission.

Zeani’s legacy began at an early age she was born Virginia Zehan, in Solovăstru, Romania. She studied first in Bucarest, with Lucia Anghel, then with famed coloratura soprano, Lydia Lipkowska, and in Milan, with the great tenor Aureliano Pertile.

With no previous stage experience, in May 1948 she made her professional debut in Bologna, Italy  substituting, at short notice, for Margherita Carosio as Violetta in La Traviata, and was immediately offered a tour of thirty more performances. Violetta, a role she ultimately sang an estimated 648 times around the world, during her career. Her partner that evening in Violetta was tenor Arrigo Pola (Alfredo), the voice teacher of Luciano Pavarotti.

Her early career focused in Italy, where she sang in many of the regional opera houses. She describes these years as “making the bones,” singing many performances of big roles in smaller houses to gain strength and experience.

In January 1950 she was invited to star in a three month season in Cairo, Egypt, singing Violetta, Nedda, Michaela and most significantly Adina in L’elisir d’amore opposite the great Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli. She was 24. He was 60.

In 1952, came an important step when, again at short notice, conductor Tullio Serafin chose her to replace Maria Callas as Elvira in i Puritani at the Teatro Communale in Florence, Italy. Soon her growing reputation led to invitations to many of the major opera houses of Europe. Violetta was her debut role in Vienna and Paris. She made her debut at La Scala, Milan in 1956, as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, opposite Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, with whom she fell in love and  later married.

Despite having appeared in several successful tours of Great Britain she had yet to appear at Covent Garden. Her debut eventually came in 1960, once again as an emergency replacement, this time for the indisposed Joan Sutherland. She recalls arriving at the Royal Opera House at 4pm, after a sleepless night. There was just time for costume fittings and a brief rest before she walked onto the Covent Garden stage. She had never before met any of the cast and had to ask, “Which one is my Alfredo?” That remarkable performance was broadcast world-wide and has been preserved on disc. Zeani also appeared in Barcelona, Leningrad, Moscow, Philadelphia and Bucharest and eventually in New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1966 as Violetta.

In her early career, she won considerable success in Bel canto roles such as Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda in Rigoletto, Elvira in I Puritani, and the title role in Linda di Chamounix, and lighter lyric roles such as Massenet’s “Manon” and Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust. As her voice matured, she gradually turned to more dramatic roles including Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly and Tosca, and verismo operas including “Fedora” and Adriana Lecouvreur. She tackled more Verdi roles including Aida, Desdemona, Elisabetta, Alzira and Lina in Stiffelio, as well as two Wagnerian heroines, Elsa in Lohengrin and Senta in “The Flying Dutchman”. She created the role of Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites in 1957 at La Scala. In1972 she enjoyed one of her greatest successes as Magda in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul.

She sang with many famous colleagues including tenors Beniamino Gigli, Mario Filippeschi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Carlo Bergonzi, Nicolai Gedda, Alfredo Kraus, Jon Vickers, Luciano Pavarotti, and Plácido Domingo, mezzo sopranos Giulietta Simionato, Fedora Barbiere, Shirley Verrett, Lili Chookasian, Grace Bumbry, baritones Gino Bechi, Tito Gobbi. Nicolae Herlea  and basses Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Boris Christoff. A warm-voiced singer with stunning looks and an affecting stage presence; she can still be seen and heard on You Tube.

Zeani retired from the operatic stage in 1983, together with her husband, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, they began to teach singing at the music school at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The couple was later honored as “Distinguished Professors.” After her husband’s death in 1991 she continued teaching at Indiana University for several more years before moving to Florida. She continues to teach talented young singers, in particular for the Florida Grand Opera Young Artist Program and the Palm Beach Opera Young Artist Program. In 2010, having now taught for thirty years, the magazine Classical Singer named her Teacher of the Year 2010.

Among  Zeani’s most famous pupils are Andrea Boccelli,  Marilyn Mims, Susan Patterson, Sylvia McNair, Stephen Mark Brown, Elizabeth Futral, Vivica Genaux, Angela Brown, Mark Nicolson, Heidi Klassen, James Valenti and Elīna Garanča.

She was the recipient of many major prestigious awards including Commendatore Republica della Republica Italiana, and most recently King Michael of Romania awarded her there highest honor “Nihil sine Deo” in May 2011 at the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest.

Over the years, The IL CIRCOLO Anniversary Gala has grown into a highly anticipated Palm Beach event, not just for its great food, presentation, and entertainment, but also because of its important purpose. Organizers are now accepting reservations, which tend to fill up quickly. Guests may reserve tables for 10 guests at $3,000 per table or $300 for individual seating. For more information, visit ilcircolpalmbeach.org, or e-mail ilcircolopb@aol.com.

About Il Circolo, The Italian Cultural Society of the Palm Beaches:

Il Circolo is a not for profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian organization incorporated in the state of Florida.
Il Circolo is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization. Contributions are deductible as directed by law.