Rolandi was born on August 16, 1952 in New York Metropolis, and grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her mom, Jane Frazier, was an American soprano, who met her father, Italian obstetrician-gynecologist Enrico Rolandi, whereas singing in Italy.
Rolandi began out as a baby violinist however recalled that “when there was no person dwelling, I’d activate opera information and sing together with Tosca and Madama Butterfly.” By the late Sixties, she was learning violin on the Brevard Music Middle, and he or she attended the North Carolina College of the Arts as a violin main in her senior yr of highschool.
She took her first voice classes on the Brevard Music Middle, and continued a protracted affiliation with the Middle, the place a lot of her coloratura roles have been discovered and first carried out. Throughout this era, Rolandi additionally labored as a child sitter for the household of the younger David Daniels!
The soprano then educated for 4 years on the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was a finalist within the Metropolitan Opera auditions in 1974, and one of many youngest winners of Minna Kaufmann Ruud Competitors of their historical past. She graduated from the Curtis Institute in 1975.
Rolandi made her debut with the New York Metropolis Opera on September 11, 1975 as Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann within the firm of Nancy Shade as Giulietta, Patricia Craig as Antonia and Samuel Ramey because the 4 villains. She was additionally heard that fall as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Reviewing her portrayal in a 1977 efficiency, New Yorker critic Andrew Porter wrote: “Gianna Rolandi’s Zerbinetta lacked softness and sweetness of timbre to begin with, however because the music turned harder her singing turned gentler, extra prettily and captivatingly playful. The large aria was exquisitely finished.”
For a later 1982 revival, New York Occasions critic Donal Henahan wrote:
In Gianna Rolandi, the Metropolis Opera had a Zerbinetta able to creating pandemonium in any opera home anyplace. Her deft and just about unflawed dealing with of her large, florid aria, one among opera’s most feared impediment programs for coloratura soprano, introduced the efficiency to a halt for as prolonged an ovation as this reviewer has heard at both of our opera homes this season. Moreover taking pictures the eyes out of that showpiece, nevertheless, Miss Rolandi danced and in any other case cavorted with superb grace and buoyant humor. Zerbinetta typically steals the present in Ariadne however seldom with such justification.
Rolandi went on to develop into one of many main sopranos of her era at NYCO. Her roles there included Susanna, Rosina, Adele, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Queen of the Night time, Fortuna and Drusilla (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Countess Adele (Rely Ory), the Queen of Shemakha in Le Coq d’or, the title roles of Naughty Marietta and La Fille du Régiment and Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare.
Rolandi was held in excessive regard by Beverly Sills, the corporate’s famous person turned normal director throughout Rolandi’s heyday there. Certainly, Sills turned a mentor determine to her youthful colleague and bequeathed a lot of her operatic properties to Rolandi.
“Beverly’s door is all the time open,” Rolandi as soon as famous. “It’s fantastic to have somebody who’s sung all these roles and to ask her how she solved sure issues.”
In 1981, Rolandi added I puritani to her NYCO repertoire. Porter wrote: “Gianna Rolandi’s first Elvira was successful—rigorously ready, precisely and touchingly sung, trendy and delicate in its phrasing. She was at her greatest in fleet embellished music.”
For her half, Rolandi loved the nurturing facets of her formative relationship with NYCO and remained loyal to the corporate all through her profession. “I really feel like I’ve grown up right here,” she mentioned. ”The Metropolis Opera is a blessing for me, as it’s for many younger singers. You get publicity and also you don’t have to go away dwelling.”
Rolandi carried out the function of the Daughter within the 1976 American premiere of Tal’s Ashmedai at NYCO and took part on this planet premiere of Argento’s Miss Havisham’s Hearth in 1979. In keeping with Porter, “the title function was initially meant for Beverly Sills. Within the occasion, it has been divided between Gianna Rolandi, who performs Miss Havisham on her bridal day, and Rita Shane, who performs the mad Miss Havisham. Miss Rolandi has a joyful, sensible D-major aria, “The solar has risen,” harking back to Jenifer’s coloratura music in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage. She sings it brightly, buoyantly. She acts the impetuous younger bride effectively, and makes poignant the second when she is stricken.”
Rolandi participated in a number of “Dwell from Lincoln Middle” telecasts of New York Metropolis Opera performances, together with the Beverly Sills Farewell Gala in 1980, by which she sang Adele in Act 2 of Fledermaus. That very same yr, she additionally took the function of Clorinda in a telecast of La Cenerentola, performing the bravura aria “Sventurata! Mi credea,” another aria written by Luca Agolini.
In 1982, Rolandi took the title function in a telecast of Lucia di Lammermoor with Barry McCauley within the function of Edgardo. In a 1983 telecast of The Crafty Little Vixen, her saucy but poignant characterization fashioned an indelible affiliation with Janacek’s animal heroine.
Reviewing her 1987 efficiency as Susanna at NYCO, New York Occasions critic Michael Kimmelman wrote:
Ms. Rolandi sang . . . in vivid and easily formed phrases, delivering her final act aria, ‘Deh! vieni, non tardar,’ with uncommon grace. She dropped at her character a successful mixture of coy self-confidence and street-smart savvy. And most significantly, Ms. Rolandi blended simply and convincingly with the ensemble of singers, whose potential to enhance and play off each other’s efforts was largely answerable for the manufacturing’s success.
Rolandi made her Metropolitan Opera debut on December 26, 1979 as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. Her colleagues on that event included Agnes Baltsa within the title function and Johanna Meier because the Marschallin with Erich Leinsdorf conducting. In whole, she sang 17 performances with the corporate and her different roles there included Olympia, the title function in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and Zerbinetta. These final two roles have been preserved as a part of the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts.
Rolandi made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut within the 1986-1987 season in Handel’s Orlando reverse Marilyn Horne. Her return to LOC in 1993-94 as Despina would function her farewell to the operatic stage.
Rolandi made her San Francisco Opera debut in 1986 as Lucia. She returned later that very same yr as Susanna with Ramey as Figaro and Kiri te Kanawa because the Countess. Her ultimate appearances there have been within the 1988-89 season as Despina. Her 1981 European debut was at Glyndebourne as Zerbinetta. She returned there in subsequent seasons for performances as Susanna and Zdenka in Arabella. The final was filmed for video launch and featured her NYCO colleague Ashley Putnam within the title function.
Of Rolandi’s recording of Le nozze di Figaro for EMI with Bernard Haitink conducting, C. J. Luten famous: “Rolandi’s vibrant soprano isn’t all the time in sharp focus beneath stress, however her characterization all the time is. She punctuates her recitatives, refuses to glide blandly although them. Her singing is most pleasing in Susanna’s second-act aria, many an ensemble, and within the letter duet with Felicity Lott, the Countess.”
Different European engagements included Ginevra and Cleopatra in for Geneva (each reverse Tatiana Troyanos), Amenaide in Tancredi for Turin (with Lucia Valentini-Terrani) and Elcia in Mosè in Egitto on the 1985 Rossini Opera Competition in Pesaro.
Upon retiring from the operatic stage, Rolandi turned Director of Vocal Research for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Middle and its Lyric Opera Middle for American Artists (LOCAA) in Might 2002, and was then named Director of the Ryan Opera Middle and the LOCAAA in 2006, succeeding Richard Pearlman upon his demise.
Rolandi married conductor Sir Andrew Davis in 1989. The 2 had labored continuously collectively on the Glyndebourne Competition and the Met. Rolandi and Davis finally took up everlasting residence in Chicago, the place he serves as Music Director and Principal Conductor for Lyric Opera of Chicago. When Davis was knighted by the Queen of England in 1999, Rolandi was known as “Woman Davis.” She is survived by Davis and their son Edward.