Fiora Contino

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fiora Contino
Contino in 1979
Born
Fiora d'Itala Rosa Corradetti

(1925-06-17)June 17, 1925
Lynbrook, New York, United States
DiedMarch 5, 2017(2017-03-05) (aged 91)
Carmel, Indiana, United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Conductor, educator

Fiora Corradetti Contino (June 17, 1925 – March 5, 2017) was an American opera conductor and teacher.

verismo works of the late 19th century,[2] and was described as one of the most important figures in opera of the 20th century.[3] Anne Midgette of The New York Times once suggested that she "might have had a far bigger career had she been a man".[4]

Early life and education

Fiora d'Itala Rosa Corradetti was born in 1925 on Long Island in

seamstress; her father, Ferruccio Corradetti [it], had been a noted baritone singer at La Scala and other European venues.[6] Fiora Corradetti had no strong singing voice, and said later that she "had no voice but learned as a conductor to sing vicariously". She studied piano and later conducting. She had an older half sister, Iris, who was an opera singer and vocal coach.[2]

At the age of 12, she was appointed as the church organist at the parish of St. Ignatius Martyr in Long Beach.[7] Her father died when she was 14.[8] Corradetti graduated from Long Beach High School and then studied piano performance at Oberlin College, Ohio, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in piano in 1947.[6] She married Joseph Contino, a fellow Oberlin graduate, changing her name.[1]

From 1958, she studied conducting at the

École Normale in Paris, and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in Austria.[1] She studied with teachers such as Nadia Boulanger and Hans Swarowsky.[6]

She received a masters and a doctorate degree in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music (now the Jacobs School of Music) in Bloomington in 1964.[2][1] While at Jacobs, she made her conducting debut, presenting Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.[9]

Conducting

In her late 20s, Contino founded the

Pittsburgh Symphony, and the San Francisco Opera.[1] She also conducted frequently at the Temple University Music Festival in Ambler, Pennsylvania.[1]

A review of her performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1973, with Dorothy Kirsten, stated "[Contino] held everything together with a baton that was sharp and in clear control of a magnificently coordinated performance".[10] Peter G. Davis wrote in 2001 of her performance of Alfano's Risurrezione, based on Leo Tolstoy's last novel, that she "may be the last conductor on earth with the music of Alfano and his generation in her bloodstream".[11]

She considered Italian

verismo opera to be her most favored music to conduct, stating in The New York Times in 2001 that it was "visceral", and she "just knew how to do it".[4]

Teaching

Contino held faculty positions at Bowling Green State University from 1963–1966,[12] the Peabody Institute from 1978–1979,[13] and the University of Texas at Austin.[5] She ran a studio in New York City, where she trained opera singers and conductors.[4] Among her students were Melinda O'Neal,[14] Kenneth Kiesler,[15] and E. Wayne Abercrombie.[16]

Personal life and death

Contino's marriage to Joseph Contino ended in divorce, yet she never changed her name. She had four children; three daughters: Lisa, Adriana, who was at one time principal cellist for the

arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.[2]

References

  1. ^
    Roberts, Sam (March 15, 2017). "Fiora Corradetti Contino, Opera Maestra, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2017. (image
    )
  2. ^ a b c d e Langer, Emily (March 17, 2017). "Fiora Corradetti Contino, trailblazing female conductor, dies at 91". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
  3. ^ a b Salazar, David (March 21, 2017). "Obituary: Fiora Corradetti Contino Took the Podium When Few Other Women Did". operawire.com. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c Midgette, Anne (September 29, 2001). "Giving Hidden Opera Classics a Moment in the Sun". The New York Times. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d "Fiora Corradetti Contino (Obituary)". Flanner Buchanan. March 6, 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2017.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ a b c Oron, Aryeh (January 2011). "Fiora Contino (Conductor) biography". Bach Cantatas. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
  7. ^ a b Kelly, Jennifer W. (January 2013). "Contino, Fiora Corradetti (born 1925), conductor". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
  8. ^
    WNIB 97.1 FM
    . Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  9. ^ Bain, Wilfred Conwell (1980). Indiana University School of Music, the Bain regime, 1947–1973. Indiana University School of Music?. p. 830.
  10. ISBN 978-1579997601
    . Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  11. ^ Davis, Peter G. (December 17, 2001). "Off-Peak Performance". New York. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
  12. ^ Corrigan, Vince (March 25, 2015). Music 100: The first Century of Music at Bowling Green University. Issuu. pp. 170–171. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
  13. ^ Bell, Margaret (May 28, 2014). "New biography of former Peabody faculty member Fiora Corradetti Contino". Peabody Institute. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
  14. ^ "Melinda O'Neal biography". Handel Choir of Baltimore. 2013. Archived from the original on November 23, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
  15. University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. 2017. Archived from the original
    on May 1, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
  16. ^ Abercrombie, E Wayne. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). University of Massachusetts. Retrieved December 7, 2017.

Further reading

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fiora_Contino&oldid=1218653167"