Lina Bruna Rasa: The Studio Recordings 1928.

"If you like my uploads of rare and unpublished historical performances please subscribe to my YouTube channel." In October of 1984, a handful of mourners followed a simple coffin to its grave in Milan. They had not forgotten the woman who had once embodied Italian verismo, but who had spent almost forty years in psychiatric institutions, largely cut off from the world she had once conquered. Faithful friends visited whenever they could, occasionally taking her for short drives. They recalled that she smiled, though she rarely spoke. It was a tragic end for one of the most remarkable singing actresses of the twentieth century. Lina Bruna Rasa was born in Padua on 24 September 1907. She began musical studies at fourteen and quickly revealed an exceptional dramatic soprano of uncommon theatrical instinct. At only seventeen she made an appearance at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, singing Suicidio from La Gioconda. The sensation led to her operatic debut later that year at Genoa’s Teatro Politeama as Elena in Mefistofele, opposite Ezio Pinza. Further successes at Turin’s Teatro Regio under Gino Marinuzzi immediately established her as one of Italy’s brightest young talents. During the following seasons her career advanced with astonishing speed. She appeared at major theatres throughout Italy, sang under Arturo Toscanini at La Scala, and created an unforgettable St Clare in Refice’s Trittico Francescano, earning the composer’s highest praise for the religious intensity of her portrayal. A decisive turning point came in 1928 when Pietro Mascagni conducted her as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana before forty thousand listeners in Venice’s Piazza San Marco. Composer and singer formed an immediate artistic bond that lasted for the remainder of her career. Although her first attempt at Mascagni’s Isabeau proved unsuccessful, he never lost faith in her. Instead, he recognised in Bruna Rasa the ideal interpreter of his music, especially Santuzza, a role with which her name would become inseparable. Yet, just as her career reached its height, severe depression and anxiety began to undermine her confidence. Engagements became increasingly difficult to fulfil and many theatres hesitated to engage her. Mascagni remained steadfast, arranging performances and radio broadcasts, encouraging her through repeated crises and entrusting her with leading roles, including the première of his final opera, Nerone, at La Scala in 1935. Her success vindicated his faith, but the victory proved only temporary. Throughout the later 1930s Bruna Rasa moved uncertainly between periods of artistic brilliance and profound psychological collapse. Colleagues spoke of her extraordinary concentration on stage and her withdrawn, almost silent existence away from it. Her performances of Santuzza continued to overwhelm audiences, particularly those conducted by Mascagni, culminating in the celebrated 1940 fiftieth-anniversary performances of Cavalleria Rusticana. The famous recording with Beniamino Gigli remains one of the greatest documents of Italian verismo, revealing an artist whose emotional commitment was almost frightening in its intensity. After 1942 she appeared only rarely. A brief attempt to return to concert life in 1948 ended in heartbreak. Arturo Toscanini attended one recital and reportedly left in tears as he realised the extent of her decline. Soon afterwards she was forced to abandon singing altogether, no longer able to remember either words or melodies. For the next thirty-six years Lina Bruna Rasa lived almost forgotten in a Milan psychiatric institution. Yet those who had known her never doubted her greatness. Gilda Dalla Rizza declared that she could never equal Bruna Rasa’s Santuzza, while Enzo De Muro Lomanto remembered that singing beside her inspired every colleague to perform beyond themselves. Her recorded legacy is small, but it preserves an artist of overwhelming dramatic conviction. Few singers have united voice and character so completely, and fewer still have paid such a terrible personal price for their art. Today Lina Bruna Rasa remains one of opera’s most moving and unforgettable tragedies. 26 April 1928 – PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut – In quelle trine morbide Matrix: B 1908 Catalogue: GQ 7103 April 1928 – PUCCINI: Tosca – Vissi d’arte Matrix: B 1911 Catalogue: GQ 7103 April 1928 – BOITO: Mefistofele – Spunta l’aurora pallida Matrix: WB 2002 Catalogue: D 12617 11 May 1928 – GIORDANO: Andrea Chénier – La mamma morta Matrix: BX 285 Catalogue: 52814-D 11–12 May 1928 – VERDI: Aida – Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate (Act III duet) with Carlo Galeffi Matrices: BX 286 / BX 288 Catalogue: GQX 10189 (BX 286 recorded 11 May; BX 288 recorded 12 May.) 12 May 1928 – MASCAGNI: Cavalleria Rusticana – Voi lo sapete Matrix: BX 289 Catalogue: 52814-D 12 May 1928 – BOITO: Mefistofele – L’altra notte in fondo al mare Matrix: BX 290 Catalogue: CQX 16514