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Monday, October 2, 2023
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| Emilia Cundari, daughter of
one of the founders of the former Mario’s Restaurant, was born
in Detroit but grew up mostly in Windsor where she attended St. Mary’s
Academy.
The Ursuline nuns recognized her talent as a singer and directed her to Marygrove College
in Detroit where she graduated with a bachelor of music degree.
After winning the Grinnell Music Award, Emilia went to New York to study with
the renowned Max Rudolf and the City Center Opera.
She worked with such stellar figures in the business as conductors George
Szell and Sir John Barbirolli. She made numerous recordings, including both
Mahler’s Second Symphony and Beethoven’s Ninth with the legendary
BrunoWalter.
Emilia killed her own career as an opera singer in favour of returning to Windsor to
raise a family.
Emilia shut the door on a solid career as a singer working with Milan’s
La Scala.
In departing Italy, she also left behind a husband, Sergio Pezzetti, an opera
singer she had met in Naples. The two were married in Windsor, but Emilia had
gone to live and work in Italy. However, when she became pregnant, she decided
to
return to Canada.
It was never really the same again for Emilia. She may have maintained seriousness
about her art, but by continually turning down requests to perform elsewhere
in the world, she saw her career quickly fade into obscurity.
Instead of performing, Emilia Cundari became a music teacher.
Emilia Cundari is the opera singer who had experienced the glow of singing
at Milan’s La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
(Source: Marty Gervais. Soprano chose home over spotlight, The Windsor
Star, January 2005) |
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ABOUT EMILIA CUNDARI’S
VOICE
BY JOHN GUINN |
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Emilia Cundari carries in her throat
a great gift that is directly connected to her soul:
Any operatic voice is a combination of nature and training. Singers
desiring to develop operatic careers submit the natural instruments
they are born with to structured technical training that, if it
is of the right kind, will preserve and enhance the instrument.
Still, it is the natural instrument that is the ultimate measure
of a great voice. Or rather, it is the intensity with which that
natural instrument reflects the personality of the singer that
is the most important factor in judging a voice’s impact.
Unfortunately, today’s operatic stable is full of well-trained
but faceless voices that are able to achieve all sorts of superficially
dazzling technical feats without being able to touch a listener’s
soul.
It is precisely that capacity to reach directly to the listener’s
soul that distinguishes Emilia Cundari’s voice from nearly
all of her contemporaries. Once heard, her sound is so intensely
personal, so utterly honest, so unencumbered with artifice that
the listener can only marvel at its unique communicative powers.
Make no mistake: Her technique is solid. But what accounts for
the unusually strong impact of her voice, is the expansive artistic
depth of the instrument itself.
I was fortunate to be able to work with Emilia Cundari as a
colleague in a university setting for several years. There were
many things that made our relationship enjoyable during those
years, among them working with her as she mounted student operatic
productions, talking with her about her
years at the Metropolitan Opera and sharing mutual opinions of singers
and composers.
But the most enjoyable times were the opportunities to hear her perform,
whether at faculty recitals, at community events or
as soloist with student choruses. Each time she shared her
gifts in such settings
the artistic caliber of those settings was raised to disarmingly
high levels. |
P11400
- Picture of Emilia Cundari, Italian soprano. Courtesy of Aldo
Cundari.
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| P11401-Picture
of Emilia Cundari, Italian soprano, as Gilda, in the opera “Rigoleto”,
1966-1967.Courtesy of Aldo Cundari. |
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| The Wedding of Emilia Cundari and Sergio Pezzetti
in 1965. Courtesy of Aldo Cundari |
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There is good singing, there is very good singing, and there is
Emilia. No one in that university setting approached her artistic
level. No one equaled her interpretive insights. And no one, including
the operatic greats I heard during my two decades as classical music
critic for the Detroit Free Press, surpassed her.
The impact her singing has on me can perhaps best be related by an
incident that happened a few years back. I had not had the opportunity
to hear her sing for several years when a friend loaned me a tape
recording of her singing at her father’s funeral.
Eager to hear her again, I put the tape in my car tape player as
I was driving to work As the intense, committed, soulful sound of
her voice began to come through my car’s speakers, I immediately
broke down in tears.
That’s how valuable Emilia Cundari’s voice is. And that’s
why, while I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with
her, I am even more grateful to have heard her sing.
(Courtesy of Aldo Cundari)
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The
opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada. |
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