Mirelle Freni as Juliette Metropolitan Opera Photo by Louis Melancon

Description

Mirelle Freni as Juliette in Romeo et Juliette. Metropolitan Opera Photo by Louis Melancon
Mirella Freni, OMRI was
an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared
at
major international opera houses.
She received international attention at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she appeared as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni and as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. Freni is associated with the role of Mimi in Puccini's La bohème, which she sang at La Scala in Milan and the Vienna State Opera in 1963, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. She also performed the role in a film of the production and as her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1965. In the earliest opera DVDs, she portrayed her characters convincingly in both acting and singing. Freni was married for many years to the Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, with whom she performed and recorded. Her obituary from The New York Times describes her as a "matchless Italian prima donna".
Louis Mélançon
(1901-1974) was the in-house
photographer
for the Metropolitan Opera from 1947 to his death in 1974.