by Sally Quinn from Washington Post News Service, The News Journal, Dec 22, 1972
Originally in: The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973); Dec 16, 1972
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*Comment on Facebook*WASHINGTON — Franco Corelli and Renata Tebaldi seem like a pair of old lovers. Very comfortable, easy and affectionate with each other.
"Would you like tea or something during the concert tonight?" asked a publicity woman from the Washington Performing Arts Society.
"I take nothing." said Tebaldi, curling her feet underneath her on the sofa, "but Franco will have tea with a little cream."
Corelli and Tebaldi, two of the most renowned opera singers in the world, were in Washington recently for the "A Salute to Italy" Concert at the Kennedy Center. It was the first time they had sung together in Washington since 1961.
“Like a pair of old lovers. Very comfortable, easy and affectionate with each other.” 📷: Kenn Feil — The Washington Post
They had agreed to a short interview on Thursday evening after a long drive down from New York.
Both own poodles and the airlines and trains will not allow dogs in the passenger section. The driver got lost and did several turns around the beltway before the two singers became frustrated and took a cab to the Watergate Hotel.
The door to Tebaldi's Watergate Hotel suite was opened by "Tina," her longtime traveling companion. She appeared from her boudoir in black slacks and a turtleneck, her flaming hair brushed back away from her face.
At 50, she still resembles her onetime look-alike, Hedy Lamar, though she is not as slim as she used to be. "I like to eat," she says frankly.
Tebaldi is totally Italian. She gestures, taps her fingers nervously, laughs a lot, is effusive and flamboyant. It does not bother her that her English is comprehendible but not perfect. She apologizes that Corelli is late: "He is very tired."
Corelli appears shortly from his room down the hall. He is dressed casually in slightly belled trousers and a sport jacket. He looks like Marcello Mastroianni. At 48 [51] it is still easy to see why he is a leading sex symbol in Italy. He knows it, too.
“Morto, morto.” he sighed, flopping own on the sofa next to Tebaldi. “I am very tired.”
They can't talk long, they explain, because they must save their voices.
Corelli and Tebaldi in Venice, early 70s - thanks to Graziano Corelli for the photo
Corelli and Tebaldi first met in Livorno in 1959 and sang together for the first time that year [in reality it was in 1958 in Naples in Tosca]. Over the years they have sung together hundreds of times and have become very close friends, not always the case in the competitive world of the opera which can literally pit singers against each other.
Did they both grow up wanting to be singers?
"No, Franco wanted to be an engineer," volunteered Tebaldi.
"I never thought I wanted to sing," he added. "But sometimes when you stay with friends, you eat, you drink, you sing. And a wonderful voice came out I didn't know. My friends laughed at me."
"Maybe it was the wine," teased Tebaldi.
"But I don't decide nothing about the career," he said. "I just try. Singing was a hobby, for relax. I was lucky in this way. It was destiny. I believe very much in destiny."
Tebaldi said she didn't plan on being a singer either. "Yes, you did," piped up Tina. "She was singing since a child."
"I was a good pianist," said Tebaldi, "until my friends say why you don't try singing. So I try it."
Both Tebaldi and Corelli are known not only for their voices, but for their styles as well, and both have tremendous followings among opera buffs which some critics, especially in Corelli's case, feel are unjustified.