Description

GIANNINA LUCACEWSKA (JANINA ŁUKASZEWSKA) (WARSAW, 1865 – ?)

 

 

 

 

She was born in Warsaw, where she began her studies. In 1886, she moved to Italy, settling in Bologna, where she attended the Liceo Musicale.

In July 1888, she was among the soloists in Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elia at the Salone dei Concerti dei Giardini Margherita in Bologna, conducted by Maestro Giuseppe Martucci. Her interpretation, together with those of the other performers, received favorable reviews from the critics. In the same year, she took part in Alberto Franchetti’s opera Asrael at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. During this period, her performance as Emilia in another opera was also praised by reviewers.

On 28 December 1895, Die Walküre was presented at the Teatro di San Carlo, where the mezzo-soprano sang the role of Fricka. She again performed this role from May to August 1899 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Her various interpretations, together with those of her colleagues, were reviewed by journalists from the Argentine newspapers La Nación and La Prensa.

In 1904, she created the role of Suzuki in the world premiere of the new version of Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Grande in Brescia on 28 May — a performance judged “excellent” by the monthly magazine Ars et Labor. Giacomo Puccini himself wrote words of praise for the mezzo-soprano’s performance. Later that year, between November and December 1904, she appeared as Maddalena in Rigoletto for three performances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Between this year and 1905, she also performed leading roles in Siegfried, Lucrezia Borgia, Hänsel und Gretel, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, again at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

She reprised the role of Fricka between November 1908 and March 1909 at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Her interpretation was considered ideal for the character by the musicologist Manuel Manrique de Lara in El Mundo and was warmly received by the public as well. She performed the same role again between January and February 1910 at the Teatro Real.

After this last engagement, no further performances by the mezzo-soprano are recorded.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Rigoletto (Verdi) Bella figlia dell’amore (w. Bonci, Magini-Coletti & Pinkert) 69019 Fonotipia, Milano 1905

Favorita (Donizetti) Quando alle soglie paterne (w. La Puma) 37643 Xm1086 Odeon Fonotipia, Milano 1908

Lohengrin (Wagner) Vendetta avrò (w. La Puma) 37656 Odeon Fonotipia, Milano 1908

Favorita (Donizetti) Ah, l’alto ardor (w. La Puma) 37677 Xm1087 Odeon Fonotipia, Milano 1908

Trovatore (Verdi) Stride la vampa 37721 Odeon Fonotipia, Milano 1908