Carlo Bergonzi

Tenor Carlo Bergonzi, for most, epitomized Verdian sophistication and style, not merely for his era, but for the complete 20th hundred years. His parents had been great opera fans and had taken him to find out Il trovatore when he was simply six. Bergonzi responded enthusiastically: another morning hours, his parents discovered him in your kitchen, performing “Di quella pira” as greatest he could, and staging the picture with kitchen implements. He performed under somewhat even more formal auspices, in cathedral choirs and in kid roles within the Busseto Opera. When he was 14, he auditioned for Edmondo Grandini. Grandini chose that Bergonzi was a baritone and provided him lessons. Bergonzi transferred to Brescia to review with him, though his research were interrupted with the battle and afterwards by his imprisonment for anti-Nazi actions within a German prisoner-of-war camp. Once the battle ended, he came back to Italy and started studies on the Boito Conservatory in Parma. On the conservatory, he was still regarded a baritone. He examined with Ettore Campogalliani and after graduation, produced his professional debut as Schaunard in La bohème in 1947, his debut within a business lead as Rossini’s Figaro in 1948 at Lecce, and continuing to sing leading baritone assignments there, also at one stage changing Tito Gobbi as Rigoletto. Nevertheless, he himself continued to be confident that he was a tenor. Finally, having utilized what he previously learned in the conservatory and recordings of additional tenors, especially Caruso, Schipa, Gigli, and Pertile, and what he kept in mind from performing on stage with Schipa and Gigli, he produced his debut like a tenor at Bari as Andrea Chénier in 1951 and quickly sang two main Verdi tenor tasks: Riccardo (El ballo in maschera) and Alvaro in La forza del destino. To maintain his voice versatile, he also sang lighter tasks, such as for example Nemorino and also Nero in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. In 1953 he produced his La Scala debut creating the part of Mas’Aniello in Napoli’s opera and his London debut as Alvaro, his American debut in the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1955, and his Met debut the next yr. His Covent Backyard debut, once again as Alvaro, had not been until 1962. He became a normal performer at almost all of the fantastic opera homes, renowned not merely for his performing, but for uniformity. He held his flexibility throughout his profession, alternating lyric and spinto tasks and also some verismo tasks. He was under no circumstances an excellent stage acting professional, nor do he possess the matinee-idol appears of a few of his contemporaries, but was a fantastic vocal actor, performing each role using the colours he experienced it demanded, rather than “one voice suits all” approach. Through the 1980s he started to concentrate even more on recitals and concert shows and in addition became a well-known instructor, focusing on technique. He developed a voice college in Busseto, and was instrumental within the “Concorso internazionale di voci verdiane,” a competition for aspiring Verdi performers. He recorded most of his main Verdi tasks. He often described his 1976 documenting on Philips of 31 main arias out of every Verdi opera, which earned the Deutscher Schalplattenpries, Premio della critica discographica italiana, as well as the Stereo system Review Record of the entire year awards, because the recording which he was proudest. His full documenting of Pagliacci on Deutsche Grammophon for von Karajan displays him thoroughly in the home within the verismo design. On Sony, he produced an exemplary saving of Italian tracks.