Anita Cerquetti (13 April 1931 – 11 October 2014) was an Italiandramatic soprano who had a short but meteoric career in the 1950s. Her voice was very powerful and pleasing to audiences.[1]
Cerquetti was born inMontecosaro, nearMacerata, Italy. She studied violin and trained for eight years with Luigi Mori. After a mere year of vocal study at the Conservatory ofPerugia, she made her operatic debut inSpoleto in 1951 as Aida. She sang all over Italy, notably inFlorence as Noraime inGli abencerragi (the Italian version ofLes abencérages) underCarlo Maria Giulini in 1956, and as Elvira inErnani underDimitri Mitropoulos in 1957. HerLa Scala debut came in 1958 as Abigaille inNabucco. She also sang onRAI in a variety of roles, such as Anaide inMosè, Mathilde inGuglielmo Tell and Elena inI vespri siciliani. In America she sang a little; her debut there was in 1955 atLyric Opera of Chicago as Amelia inUn ballo in maschera, oppositeJussi Björling and withTullio Serafin conducting. In July 1958 she was due to make her debut at London'sRoyal Opera House, as Aida,[2] but had to withdraw after a late Juneappendectomy (she was replaced byLeontyne Price);[3] she was destined never to sing there.
Cerquetti made headlines in January 1958 when she replaced "in extremis" the ailingMaria Callas inNorma, at theRome Opera House.[4] She was already singing the role at theSan Carlo inNaples. She commuted between the two cities to honor both engagements for several weeks. This "tour de force" won her great acclaim but had serious effects on her health.[5] Shortly afterward she started withdrawing little by little from the stage until her complete retirement in 1961 at just thirty years of age.
She made only two studio recordings, both forDecca in 1957: a recital of Italian opera arias and a completeLa Gioconda withMario del Monaco,Ettore Bastianini,Giulietta Simionato andCesare Siepi underGianandrea Gavazzeni. But there are many pirated live recordings, and a few of them — such as the 1957 FlorenceErnani (with del Monaco, Bastianini,Boris Christoff, and Mitropoulos conducting), the 1958 Mexico CityAida (withFlaviano Labò,Nell Rankin,Cornell MacNeil,Fernando Corena andNorman Treigle) and the 1958 RomeNorma (withFranco Corelli) — are legendary. Here is a partial list of the others:
There have also been releases of recordings from her recitals, on specialist labels.
Anita Cerquetti was married tobaritone Edo Ferretti, who predeceased her.[1] She herself lived to the age of 83, dying inPerugia in 2014 due to heart problems.[6]
