Virginia Zeani

Virginia Zeani (born Virginia Zehan; 21 October 1925 – 20 March 2023) was a Romanian-born opera singer who sang leading soprano roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America.

As a singer, she was known for her dramatic intensity and the beauty, wide range, and suppleness of her voice, which allowed her to sing a repertoire of 69 roles ranging from the heroines in belcanto operas by Rossini and Donizetti to those of Wagner, Puccini and Verdi.

She also created roles in several 20th-century operas, including Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites.

Zeani was born on 21 October 1925 in Solovăstru, a central Transylvania village located in Romania.

She has described to interviewers a childhood where, despite bronchial troubles, she was always singing, even when she was fetching water from the river for cooking.

She said that music had "entered her soul" after hearing a band of gypsies, one of whom was playing a hora on the violin, and at the age of nine she became determined to be an opera singer after hearing a performance of Madama Butterfly.

When she was 13 a benefactor in the village paid for her to study singing in Bucharest with Lucia Anghel, a mezzo-soprano with whom she trained as a mezzo-soprano during her teenage years.

As a young adult during World War II she began studying with Ukrainian soprano Lydia Lipkowska in Bucharest.

Lipkowska disagreed with Anghel's assessment of her voice as a mezzo-soprano, and retrained her voice as a soprano.

Zeani stated of her experience during this time

"I had no high notes at all at that point in my life, but after she accepted me and I worked with her for three months I had an incredible range."

After World War II ended, Zeani emigrated to Italy and continued her vocal studies in Milan.

By then she knew the leading soprano roles in four operas by heart—the title role in Manon, Marguerite in Faust, Violetta in La traviata and Mimì in La bohème.

In Milan she had extensive coaching with the conductor Antonio Narducci.

She also sought out the tenor Aureliano Pertile, who had long been one of her idols for the beauty of his phrasing and diction.

She called at his house and, according to Zeani, when he opened the door she burst into tears and was unable to speak.

Pertile's wife ushered her inside and, after talking to her, Pertile accepted her as a student on a non-paying basis, giving her private lessons and allowing her to attend his master classes.

She repaid him by running errands and helping his wife with household chores.

Zeani made her professional debut in 1948 as Violetta in La traviata, which would become one of her signature roles; she performed this role over 640 times.

Zeani made her professional debut as Violetta in La traviata at the Teatro Duse in Bologna in 1948 as a last-minute replacement for Margherita Carosio.

It was to become her signature role.

one she sang 648 times during the course of her career.

She initially sang in Italian regional opera houses but also began appearing abroad.

In 1950 and 1951 she sang in Egypt in private concerts for King Farouk as well as in a series of operas in Cairo and Alexandria.

She also sang Violetta in Geneva in 1952 and at London's Stoll Theatre in 1953.

She made her Florence debut as Elvira in I puritani in 1952, replacing Maria Callas, who had withdrawn from the production after two performances.

It was during the Puritani performances that she first met her future husband, the Italian bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni.

They met again in 1956 when she made her La Scala debut as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, opposite Rossi-Lemeni as her Giulio Cesare.

She was married to the Italian bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni from 1957 until his death in 1991.

They both taught at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music for many years (and continued to teach singing privately afterwards).

She spent her last years in Palm Beach County, Florida.

He soon proposed and the couple married in 1957.

A year later their son Alessandro was born.

Zeani and Rossi-Lemeni made their home in Rome and would appear together in thirteen more operas.

At the start of her career Zeani had specialised in coloratura roles including Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Elvira in I puritani, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Adèle in Le comte Ory.

However, in a 1960 production at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma she sang all three heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann — Olympia (coloratura soprano), Antonia (lyric soprano), and Giulietta (dramatic soprano).

Rossi-Lemeni appeared in the same production playing all four villains — Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle, and Dappertutto.

From 1970 she increasingly assayed the heavier dramatic soprano roles with great success, notably the title roles in Aida, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, and Fedora.

She also sang Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin and Senta in his Flying Dutchman.

After her retirement from the stage in 1982, she became a well-known voice teacher.