She was Callas’s deputy
mainThe splendid Italian soprano Anita Cerquetti died today at the age of 83.
In January 1958, she stepped in for Maria Callas as Norma in Rome, while continuing to perform the same role for two weeks in Naples. The tour de force earned her world headlines but appears to have affected her health. Over the next three years she steadily reduced her commitments until announcing her complete retirement in 1961, aged 30.
These points make sense and in later filmed interviews Miss Cerquetti also said that her busy schedule was driving her batty and implied that she had had a breakdown and that retirement gave her “peace” and “serenity.” To make a comeback seemed to be via “the pointing of a gun. Why? Basta!”
She was right up there with the best of them; a fabulous singer.
The last recording of her, a Nabucco in the Concertgebouw:
http://www.radio4.nl/luister-concerten/concerten/4759/legendarisch-archief-sopraan-anita-cerquetti-in-nabucco