Leyla Gencer facts for kids
Leyla Gencer (born Leyla Çeyrekgil; October 10, 1928 – May 10, 2008) was a famous Turkish opera singer. She was known for her beautiful voice, called a bel canto soprano. She spent most of her career in Italy, starting in the early 1950s.
Leyla Gencer performed in over seventy different opera roles. She didn't make many official recordings, but many unofficial recordings of her performances exist. She was especially famous for singing the main female roles in operas by Gaetano Donizetti.
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Early Life
Leyla Gencer was born in Polonezköy, a village near Istanbul, Turkey. Her father was Turkish, and her mother was Polish. Her father, Hasanzade İbrahim Bey, was a rich businessman. Her mother, Lexanda Angela Minakovska, came from a noble family in Poland. Her mother later became a Muslim and changed her name to Atiye.
Leyla grew up in the Çubuklu area of Istanbul, which is on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus strait. In 1946, she married İbrahim Gencer, who was a banker.
Education and First Performances
Leyla Gencer started learning to sing at the Istanbul Conservatory. But she soon left to study privately in Ankara with a famous Italian opera singer named Giannina Arangi-Lombardi. After her teacher passed away, Leyla continued her studies with another Italian singer, Apollo Granforte.
She sang in the chorus of the Turkish State Theater until 1950. That year, she made her first big opera performance in Ankara. She played the role of Santuzza in the opera Cavalleria Rusticana. Over the next few years, she became very well known in Turkey. She often sang at events for the Turkish government.
Opera Career
In 1953, Leyla Gencer made her first performance in Italy at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. She sang the role of Santuzza again. The next year, she returned to Naples to perform in Madama Butterfly and Eugene Onegin.
Performing at La Scala
In 1957, she made her debut at La Scala in Milan, which is one of the most famous opera houses in the world. She performed in a new opera called Dialogues of the Carmelites. She sang at La Scala many times, performing nineteen different roles between 1957 and 1983. Some of her famous roles there included Leonora in La forza del destino, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, and the main role in Aida. She also sang in the first performance of another new opera, L'assinio nella cattedrale, in 1958. In 1960, she toured the USSR, singing concerts in Moscow and Baku.
International Performances
In 1962, Leyla Gencer performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. She sang as Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlos. Her first performance in the United States was in 1956 at the San Francisco Opera. She sang as Francesca in Francesca da Rimini. She sang in other American opera houses too, but she never performed at the famous Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Leyla Gencer was known for being an innovative opera singer. She performed Chopin's Polish songs in Paris. She also gave a special concert in Venice that featured operas about Turkish people. Her last performance on an opera stage was in 1985. After that, she continued to sing in concerts until 1992.
Bringing Back Forgotten Operas
Throughout her career, Gencer was especially famous for singing operas by Gaetano Donizetti. She helped bring back many of his forgotten operas, like Belisario, Anna Bolena, and Maria Stuarda. Her most famous performance was in Roberto Devereux in Naples in 1964. Besides bel canto roles, her performances included works by composers like Prokofiev, Mozart, and Puccini. She also performed in many operas that were rarely heard, helping people discover them.
Leyla Gencer quickly became an international star. She sang under the direction of some of the greatest Italian music leaders. Her wide range of songs included 72 different roles. These roles covered many types of soprano voices, from light and agile to powerful and dramatic.
Teaching Young Singers
Starting in 1982, Leyla Gencer began teaching young opera singers. She worked as an artistic director in Milan, helping students learn. In 1997, she was chosen by Riccardo Muti, a famous music director, to run La Scala's school for young artists. She was very good at teaching how to interpret and perform opera roles. In 1996, she appeared in a film called Opera Fanatic.
Death and Legacy
Leyla Gencer passed away on May 10, 2008, in Milan, Italy, at the age of 79. After her funeral, her ashes were brought to Istanbul. On May 16, her ashes were scattered in the waters of the Bosphorus strait, just as she had wished. The famous musician Fazıl Say helped carry out her wish.
Ten years after her death, in 2018, the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts honored Leyla Gencer. They held the 9th Leyla Gencer Voice Competition and an exhibition called Primadonna and Solitude. In 2019, a film about her life, Leyla Gencer: La Diva Turca, was shown at a festival in London.
See also
In Spanish: Leyla Gencer para niños
- Turkish State Opera and Ballet
