Marianne Cornetti is recognized internationally as one of the leading Verdi mezzo-sopranos in the world.
She has conquered all the world’s major opera houses with appearances in the big Verdi roles at the Met, La Scala and Vienna.
Her repertoire encompasses roles such as Lady Macbeth, Azucena, Amneris and Ulrica from the Verdi canon.
The majority of Cornetti’s repertoire has been Verdi for several reasons.
“First and foremost, it’s a vocal thing: I’m capable of singing Verdi. But it’s also because I love these characters—the witches and the bitches and the queens. They’re the ones who drive the operas. Ulrica, Azucena, Amneris, Lady Macbeth, Eboli: there’s no drama without these women. I love that temperament of character. I’m half-Italian, half-Irish, and I’ve got that kind of temperamento. I love that kind of fire inside the belly of the characters I play.”
She did Anna Bolena a couple times, which she enjoyed. “It caresses the vocal cords,” she said.
As a child in her native Pittsburgh, Cornetti said her life was full of music.
“I came from a musically loving family,” she said, crediting her Irish mother with being the major influence.
“She played the piano, and she raised us as loving music. It was part of our lives,” Cornetti said.
In the sixth grade, Cornetti was given an opportunity to sing a student solo. Her song was “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”
“My brother said, ‘My God, Marianne has such a loud voice!’” she said.
Cornetti credits the hand of God with putting her in the path of influential people, starting with a voice teacher in eighth grade, who she studied under for four years.
“There was always somebody at every turn,” she said.
But things were not always smooth.
She began attending the Manhattan School of Music, where she dropped out after one year.
“The experience was so terrible,” she said.
She then enrolled at the Cincinnati Conservatory, where she completed two years before missing a year due to a thyroid problem.
“I re-registered to go back, but when I was thirty miles away I lost nerve,” Cornetti said.
She turned around and went home.
“I don’t think I want to be a singer any more,” she explained to her parents.
The were agreeable, but insisted that Cornetti determine an aptitude and resume her education.
A test showed Cornetti to have strong interests in music and human services.
She combined the two, enrolling at Penn State University to study speech pathology.
“I hated it! It was all clinical and wasn’t part of my soul. I kept at it though,” she said.
Eventually she transferred to Dusquesne University in Pittsburgh.
By this time she had compiled so many Music credits, that she decided to drop Speech Pathology and focus on a Music degree.
She started singing again, guided by a voice teacher.
That’s when the singing bug bit her, she said.
“I loved my voice teacher [who told me], ‘If you don’t sing, it will haunt you for the rest of your life.”
From there, Cornetti said she has never looked back.
She finished her degree and did three years at the Pittsburgh Opera’s Young Artist programme.
“My debut as a professional at Pittsburgh Opera was a big deal for me,” she said.
Then Cornetti started with the Metropolitan Opera, where she spent five years singing “all the small roles.”
Though her Metropolitan Opera debut involved just a “teeny little role” in Death in Venice, Cornetti said the experience was profound.
“When I took my bow, I thought the whole world was looking at me!” she said.
She continued at the Met for five years, singing “all the small roles.”
“I did it like the old-time singers such as Simionato did it: little by little. She was well into her career before she sang a big role,” Cornetti said.
This was a sensible approach, Cornetti concluded.
“You can’t do these big roles as a young girl, it would eat you up. It’s too demanding vocally,” she said.
Then, in 1998 after Mamma Lucia at the Met, Cornetti informed her colleagues that she was ready to move on.
“No more small roles,” she told them.
They looked at her and said, “Oh, really?” according to Cornetti
“I’ll be back, just you wait and see!” she replied.
Four years later, Cornetti was back at the Met in the role of Amneris in Verdi’s Aida.
“That to me was beyond description,” she said.
In 2000 Cornetti made her La Scala debut in Milan, Italy.
“That was unbelievable,” she said.
In the years since, Cornetti has performed in numerous major roles in opera venues around the world.
She will be performing at View in Old Forge on Thursday, August 21, at 7:30 p.m., accompanied by pianist Joan Kruegar.
The program is the 4th Annual Broadway Meets Opera.
Tickets are $35 and can be purchased by calling View at (315) 369-6411 or online at www.ViewArts.org.
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Major source: Quoted material from a MusicalCriticism.com article by Dominic McHugh.