RENATA TEBALDI FOUNDATION

Located in the State of the Republic of San Marino and established on December 30, 2004, with the authorization of Renata Tebaldi (legally recognized on January 27, 2005), the Renata Tebaldi Foundation has the objective of safeguarding and strengthening throughout the world the memory and fame of the great Artist. The Foundation, which is non-profit, pursues its goals through the promotion of cultural and musical activities of various kinds, primarily an International Singing Competition and concerts. The economic resources of the Foundation come from contributions, sponsorships, donations, voluntary support, and promotional activities undertaken by the Foundation itself for its own sustenance.

Renata Tebaldi arrived in San Marino almost by chance. She was gradually introduced to the reality of the Foundation by her unforgettable friend Valentino Bertinotti: a tenacious and attentive lover of operatic singing, thanks to his own sensitivity and education, absorbed from a young age in his family environment and the cultural climate of Rimini of that time.
In the course of this friendship, it often came naturally to ask: what future, in light of the present times, would opera have, or will it have? What expectations could still be embodied by the communication of “bel canto” in the years to come?
The first edition of the International Voice Competition took place in September 2005, with a desired yet also unexpected success in terms of participation, with entries arriving from all over the world.

Renata Tebaldi often declared that she considered her true stage debut to have taken place at the end of 1945 in Trieste, when she first took on the role of Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello. From that occasion, and until her last stage performance, there were eleven Verdi characters that benefited from her voice, intermediate between lyric and dramatic, singularly suited to exalting the chaste passion with which Verdi, in his maturity, portrayed his female characters. Whether due to the rare transparency of her timbre, the roundness of her tone, or the sensational velvet quality of her voice, it is certain that it would be difficult to deny the definition of “passionate angels” to Verdi’s women as Tebaldi interpreted them.

Completing the overview of Verdi’s female figures are the three she never performed on stage but only recorded: Leonora in Il Trovatore, Elisabeth of Valois in Don Carlos, and Amelia in Un ballo in maschera. It is enough to recall that to all of them she gave a broad and sweet singing style, never separated from the charm of lyrical effusion and her very particular vocal expansion, along with angelic traits mixed with sacrificial sensuality that were uniquely hers.


For further information and interesting facts, visit the Website: https://www.fondazionerenatatebaldi.org/