Leyla Gencer (Leyla Gencer) |

Leyla Gencer

Debut 1950 (Ankara, part of Santuzza in Rural Honor). Since 1953 she has performed in Italy (first in Naples, since 1956 in La Scala). In 1956, her American debut (San Francisco) also took place. She repeatedly performed at the Glyndebourne Festival (since 1962), where she performed the parts of Countess Almaviva, Anna Boleyn in Donizetti’s opera of the same name, etc. Since 1962 she also sang at Covent Garden (debut as Elizabeth in Don Carlos). In Edinburgh, she sang the title role in Donizetti’s Mary Stuart (1969). Gencher has repeatedly performed at La Scala, the Vienna Opera. She toured to the USSR (Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre).

Participated in the world premieres of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites (1957, Milan) and Pizzetti’s Murder in the Cathedral (1958, Milan). In 1972 she sang the title role in Donizetti’s rarely performed Caterina Cornaro (Naples). In the same year she brilliantly performed the title role in Gluck’s Alceste at La Scala. Among the roles are also Lucia, Tosca, Francesca in Zandonai’s opera Francesca da Rimini, Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore and The Force of Destiny, Norma, Julia in Spontini’s The Vestal Virgin and others.

Among the recordings of the role of Julia in the “Vestalka” Spontini (conductor Previtali, Memories), Amelia in “Masquerade Ball” (conductor Fabritiis, Movimento musica).

E. Tsodokov