JAMES EUGENE McCRACKEN - PROGRAM SIGNED 05/05/1968 CO-SIGNED BY: FIORENZA COSSOTTO - HFSID 67625

JAMES MCCRACKEN and FIORENZA COSSOTTO
The two Opera performers sign their names on a program for the Metropolitan Opera's 1967-1968 season
Program signed: "James McCracken", "Fiorenza Cossotto", 56 pages, 8¼x11. Program for the Metropolitan Opera, 1967-1968 season. JAMES MCCRACKEN (1926-1988) was an American tenor who performed at the New York City Metropolitan Opera for 25 years. McCracken began studying opera seriously after serving in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He debuted at the Central City Opera in Denver, Colorado as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème in 1952. McCracken's Met debut was in the same opera a year later as Parpignol and debuted in Europe at the Vienna State Opera in 1957. He became a star in the early 1960's, when the Washington, DC Opera Society gave him the title role in Verdi's Otello. After touring Europe in this role, he returned to the Met in 1963. McCracken left the Met in 1978, but returned for its centennial in 1983. He remained at the Met until his health forced him to retire during the 1987-1988 season, shortly before his death. FIORENZA COSSOTTO (b. 1935) is an Italian mezzo-soprano with a big, overpowering voice. She is considered to be one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos of the 20th Century, with a career spanning five decades and into the new millennium. Cossotto made her debut in 1957 as Sister Matilde at the 1957 world premiere of Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. Her big break came five years later, when she replaced an ill Giulietta Simionato as the lead in a 1962 La Scala production of La Favorita. Cossotto also appeared almost 150 times at the Metropolitan Opera between1968 and 1989. Lightly toned. Corners and edges lightly worn. Unknown, heavy staining on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.