Obituary: Alda Noni, sporano

Alda Noni, soprano. Born: 30 April, 1916, in Trieste, Italy. Died: 19 May, 2011, in Cyprus, aged 95.

Alda Noni had a distinguished career, singing in many of the leading opera houses of the world but she became closely associated with the Glyndebourne productions which came to the Edinburgh International Festival in its first few years.

She was a strong soubrette soprano who specialised in the roles of Mozart and Donizetti operas as well as being recognised for her singing of such early music as that by Cimarosa. Noni had a bright, elegant voice that was very much in the Viennese style but her handsome appearance and keen sense of comedy made her ideal for many lighter roles.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The composer Richard Strauss personally selected her to sing the taxing role of Zerbinetta in a gala performance of his opera Ariadne auf Naxos in Vienna to mark his 80th birthday in June 1944.

In Britain she was principally associated with Glyndebourne and her three memorable visits to the Edinburgh Festivals. In 1949 she sang the role of the fortune teller Ulrica in Verdi's Ballo in Maschera with a cast led by the startling soprano Ljuba Welitsch.

In 1953 Noni was one of the outstanding "Ugly Sisters"in Carl Ebert's stirring production of Rossini's La Cenerentola and the following year she was back at the King's Theatre in another production by Carl Ebert, Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. All performances were conducted by Vittorio Gui and made a terrific impression on audiences and critics.

The cast of Ballo in Maschera, "especially Ljuba Welitsch, Aldo Noni and Paola Silveri, gave us a glorious and flawless evening", wrote the Scots Magazine. In 1954 it wrote of the Cosi fan Tutte: "I tasted the rare pleasure of complete enjoyment… a perfect evening."

But the Glyndebourne company greatly endeared itself to the city of Edinburgh by starting a tradition which has been continued often over the years. Noni and Silveri spent an afternoon at the Edinburgh City Hospital going round the wards and singing to the patients.

They visited two other hospitals and, indeed, the Kirkcaldy-born Ian Wallace, who was on the verge of his international career, joined his colleagues at the Royal Infirmary.

He had been a patient there for two years in his youth with spinal tuberculosis and brought much humour to the occasion by accompanying Noni and Silveri on his ukulele.

Aldo Noni studied principally in Vienna, making her debut as Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville in Yugoslavia in 1937. She joined the Vienna State Opera in 1942 and was chosen by Strauss to sing for his 80th birthday gala.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was an occasion that Hitler had tried to stop - the composer and the Fuhrer had had something of a falling out - but the conductor Karl Bohm mounted the opera anyway.Two decades later a pirate recording of the event was issued on disc and one impressed critic deemed Noni's performance a "piquant, sparkling, wonderfully accurate Zerbinetta".

In 1949 Noni came to the Royal Opera House with the La Scala company from Milan and she sang extensively in Paris and Japan. But after the birth of her daughter in 1955 she decided to leave the stage.

The quality of her voice and her vocal purity can still be enjoyed on some historic recordings. She provided a startling Queen of the Night on Herbert von Karajan's early recording of The Magic Flute (with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Nicolai Gedda).

On the classic highlights recording of Cosi fan Tutte from the Glyndebourne production (conducted by Fritz Busch) Noni recorded the role of Despina separately from the rest of the cast, at the Abbey Road studios, in London.

She moved to Cyprus many years ago but occasionally gave master classes and appeared on the judging panels of international singing competitions.

Related topics: