Hanging Corner Curtains

Leyla Gencer Istanbul1924-Milan2008

As requested by Jamesofdoom as punishment for not updating my LJ often enough, here follows a brief resumé of Leyla Gencer.

Ayshe Leyla Ceyrekegil was born in Istanbul on the 10th of October 1928 or 1924.There was always some mystery about the year,which it amused her to cultivate.As someone once said,she was a lady of a certain age,but being a lady,her age was not certain.She married the long-suffering Ibrahim(Ibo)Gencer,director of a Turkish Bank,in 1946.

She studied singing with Giannina Arrangi-Lombardi who as luck would have it was living in Turkey at the time,and later with Apollo Granforte.Her debut was in Ankara as Santuzza in 1950.

Her Italian debut was also as Santuzza at the Teatro di San Carlo,Naples in 1953,followed shortly by Tatiana in Evgenij Onegin,the role which first made her well-known,conducted by Tullio Serafin,with whom she then worked very often.(In fact in later years she was sometimes unjustly accused of copying Maria Callas,and the reason for this is that they both studied thier roles in their formative years with Serafin.Not many people realise that when Callas was in her irreversible vocal crisis in the 1960s she actually went to Gencer in Milan and asked for technical advice,too late;-))))

Her Scala debut was in 1957 as M.me Lidoine in the world première of Francis Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites,under the direction of Margherita Wallmann who had convinced Poulenc to write the opera and incidentally collaborated extensively on the libretto which was then published as the composer's own.She then returned to La Scala for 15 seasons as the main rival to Callas after both Renata Tebaldi and Renata Scotto had taken off to New York.

She also sang extensively in San Francisco,(Francesca da Rimini,Zandonai,1955)in Russia at the Bolshoi in Moscow(La Traviata 1960)and the Kirov in Leningrad/St.Petersburg,and in Britain at Covent Garden (Don Giovanni 1962) and at the Glyndebourne Festival (Le Nozze di Figaro 1962 and Anna Bolena,one of her favourite roles,in 1965)as well as most other countries in Europe and of course Turkey.

There are very few official recordings of her in circulation because she never signed an exclusive contract with a recording house,but many of the smaller houses have published pirate recordings in recent years.

Her last appearence on stage was in one of the houses where she sang most,La Fenice in Venice, in Francesco Gnecco's "La Prova di un'Opera Seria" in 1983.

Since then she had been teaching and preparing student performances,first at the ASLICO,the association responsible for launching most of the Italian singers of the 50s 60s and 70s, and then from 1997 when it was founded,on Riccardo Muti's indication,she was invited to direct the Accademia della Scala.It was in these two institutions that I collaborated with her.

She passed away on the 9th of May 2008 in Milan.Unfortunately,as I was working in Spain I was unable to attend the funeral which was held in Milan in the church of San Babila.(Leyla was catholic because her mother,although born in Turkey,was of Polish origin.This is why she Was educated in Catholic schools in Turkey and quadrilingual Grew up speaking French and Italian Polish of course Turkish.She Inglese and learnt a little later just to sing German lieder.)

Were Her ashes scattered on the Bosphoros as she desired.

South Park Studios Slow?

ricky600 @ 2008-10-10T15:39:00

Today October 10 was the birthday of Leyla Gencer, and is the first that she is not here to celebrate.
It 's also the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi.

Today the 10th of October Was Leyla Gencer's birthday, and it's the first she's not here to celebrate. It's Also
Giuseppe Verdi's birthday.


Leyla Gencer as Anna Bolena at La Scala in the 1960's