Her Voice, Her Repertoire, and Her Musicianship
Evanti’s career spanned several decades and featured an impressive panoply of repertoire that speaks to her capabilities as a performer. She was styled as a lyric coloratura soprano, meaning she could sing very high with great agility and flexibility. Through our research, we were able to locate numerous recital programs and concert reviews with repertoire lists, making it possible to determine what kinds of repertoire appeared on her recitals, and what her voice was capable of. Even without the benefit of recordings, we know that Lillian Evanti was an incredibly gifted performer with a beautiful voice.
Her repertoire included many operatic roles, spanning multiple languages and styles of music. These signature roles include some of the most difficult soprano arias, which indicates that she found success singing challenging roles and singing them well. These roles include Lakmé in Delibes’ eponymous opera, Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere de Sevilla (The Barber of Seville), Manon in Massenet’s opera of the same name, and Thaïs, the titular role in another Massenet opera. She performed these roles in full productions of the operas, but she also took this repertoire to concerts and recitals, often performing each role’s signature arias. One recital program featured Lakmé’s “Air des clochettes,” a famous soprano aria requiring great control and virtuosity, in which the singer’s voice mimics the ringing of bells. Considering that her signature roles were all leading ladies or titular roles, it is clear that Evanti’s voice was of the highest caliber.
In addition to her operatic repertoire, Evanti’s concerts and recitals featured many art songs and other arias outside of her signature roles. One review mentioned program including the notoriously difficult “Shadow song” from Meyerbeer’s Dinorah, Rimsky-Korsakoff’s “Hymn to the Sun,” a cradle song by Marguerite Canal, a pastorale from Stravinsky, Ballantine’s “Song to the Moon,” among others. She frequently performed music by female composers, sometimes even including her own compositions. Her repertoire also regularly included composers of color, such as H.T. Burleigh’s spirituals, and many Central and South American artists. As shown by this vast range of repertoire, Evanti sang in eight to ten languages, and was able to speak five fluently. Her virtuosity and musicianship are evident in the choice of repertoire she frequently performed.
Photos Cited:
Figure 1: “Lillian Evanti.” The White House Historical Association. Accessed October 26, 2022.
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/lillian-evanti.
Figure 2:
“Portrait of Soprano Lillian Evanti in Stage Costume (Stage Name of Lillian Evans).” Europeana, https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/496/2y010_0011519?lang=en.