This post is a memorial tribute to the Romanian soprano Ileana Cotrubas, who had died at 87. She was a huge opera star for about 15 years before developing vocal problems and retiring in 1989.Cotrubas was known both for her affecting performances and for her uncompromising views, leading the adulation from critics and audiences and occasional conflicts with directors and conductors who did not meet her standards.
Her obituary in the New York Times (gift link) quotes the critic Alan Blyth saying that she had the power "to make the audience’s heart beat just that much faster as soon as she appears onstage, and to convince it that for the moment nothing in the world matters more to her than to convey the particular predicament of whichever character she is portraying."
Today we will hear her not in opera but in sacred music by Mozart, via what may be her first recording, that of the Coronation Mass, K 317, of 1779, and the Litaniae Lauretanae, K 195, of 1774. Neville Marriner conducts the Schola Cantorum of Oxford and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, with contralto Helen Watts, tenor Robert Tear and baritone John Shirley-Quirk. The recording is from May 1971, several years before Contrubas' most celebrated opera recordings. It was, however, not her sole venture into sacred music: she also recorded Mozart's Mass in C minor and Requiem, and perhaps other works.
This recording - and in particular the soprano - impressed critic Trevor Harvey of The Gramophone: "I can whole-heartedly recommend the present disc, and not least for the contribution of Ileana Cotrubas. Her singing is simply gorgeous. The others of the solo quartet need no commendation from me by now, for you have only to look at the names. Marriner conducts the Mass with first-rate rhythm and gets great intensity of singing in 'Crucifixus'. Ileana Cotrubus is really marvellous, with her quality and firmness of line."
 |
| John Shirley-Quirk, Helen Watts, Robert Tear |
The Coronation Mass is, as you might have guessed, associated with royalty. The first record of it being performed was at the coronation of Francis II as Holy Roman Emperor in 1792; and it soon became a favorite for use at important ceremonies at court in Vienna. (The sleeve commentary states that it was associated with the miraculous crowing of an image of the Virgin in 1744; this is now thought not to be the case.)
Mozart composed two settings of the Litaniae Lauretanae, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is the second. "Lauretanae" refers to Loreto. This is a reference to Mary's and the Holy Family's home in Nazareth, which medieval tradition has the angels removing to Dalmatia and then to Loreto, Italy in the 13th century, to escape wartime destruction. The Litany was written for Salzburg Cathedral.
 |
| Neville Marriner |
While Trevor Harvey singled out Cotrubas in his review, all the soloists are excellent, as is the vintage ASMF under the estimable Marriner. The chorus master was Andrew Parrott, at the time the conductor of the Schola Cantorum. George Malcolm provided the organ continuo.
The fine recording was made in St. John's, Smith Square, London.
 |
| Ad in The Gramophone, September 1972 |
