Franco Calabrese (Palermo, 1923 – Lucca, 1992) was an Italian bass singer.
Monthly Archives: November 2017
CATERINA MANCINI, Soprano * 10 November 1924, Genzano di Roma, Italy + 21 January 2011, Rome, Italy;
Caterina Mancini (November 10, 1924 – January 21, 2011) was an Italian dramatic coloratura soprano, primarily active in Italy in the 1950s.
Mancini was born at Genzano di Roma. She made her debut in 1948, as Giselda in I Lombardi, in Florence. In 1950, she appeared in Bologna and Venice, in Norma, and made her debut at La Scala in Milan, in Lucrezia Borgia, in 1951.
The same year, she sang in many Verdi operas on radio broadcast (RAI) to commemorate 50th anniversary of Verdi’s death. Many of these broadcasts have been released by the record company Cetra, notably, Nabucco, Ernani, Attila, La battaglia di Legnano, Il trovatore, and Aïda.
She sang mostly in Italy, notably as Anaide in Mosè in Egitto in Florence (1955), and as Amelia in Il duca d’Alba, in Verona (1956). She made occasional appearances in France and Spain. Other notable roles included: Amelia, Elisabetta, Gioconda, Santuzza, Tosca.
Mancini was a dramatic coloratura soprano, possessing a large and powerful, yet surprisingly flexible voice, which made her an excellent exponent of early Verdi operas. Health problems in the early 1960s led her to withdraw little by little from the stage. In fact, on November 30, 1963, she sang the contralto part in a performance of the oratorio Messiah, for the Dallas Opera. The event was dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, who had been slain in that city a few days earlier. The other soloists included Jon Vickers and Norman Treigle, and it was conducted by Nicola Rescigno. It was billed as her “first appearance as a contralto and in an English work.”
Her career was in many ways similar to the one of Anita Cerquetti; both had short but brilliant careers, and both were more of less eclipsed by Maria Callas, and nowadays almost forgotten.
JULES BASTIN, Bass * 18 August 1933, Brussels, Belgium + 2 December 1996, Waterloo, Belgium;
Jules Bastin (18 August 1933 – 2 December 1996; Waterloo) was a Belgian operatic bass. Born in Pont-Bellevaux-Ligneuville (fr), he made his debut in 1960 at La Monnaie, singing Charon in L’Orfeo. He appeared at major opera houses throughout Europe, including the Royal Opera House, La Scala, and the Palais Garnier; he also sang at opera houses in North and South America. He was known for playing roles from a variety of operatic traditions, from Monteverdi to Berg, but he was perhaps most famous for singing the comic role of Ochs in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.
The New York Times reported: ” Mr. Bastin sang the starring bass roles in Verdi’s Don Carlo and in operas by Mozart, Wagner and other composers. Although best known for his sensitive interpretation of works in French and Italian, his favorite role was that of Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier “.
He began his career as a teacher of German, French and history before turning to professional singing. After becoming successful in opera, he continued to teach music at the Royal Music Conservatory in Brussels. He had the same teacher as José Van Dam.
Original Vintage HANDSIGNED Photograph 1981
JOHANN NEPOMUK BECK, Baritone * 05 May 1827, Budapest, Hungary + 09 April 1904, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia;
Johann Nepomuk Beck (5 May 1827 – 9 April 1904) was a Hungarian operatic baritone. He possessed a flexible and strong voice that was particularly suited to the French and Italian operatic repertoire. Beginning in 1853, he sang for more than thirty years at the Hofoper (now the Vienna State Opera), particularly excelling in works by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Giuseppe Verdi. He notably portrayed the role of King Solomon in the world première of Karl Goldmark’s Die Königin von Saba in 1875.
Biography
Born at Budapest, Beck first trained as a theology student there but was an active member of the choral society. During a touring season at Budapest from the Vienna Hofoper in about 1847, he sought advice over his ‘splendid baritone’ voice from the bass Karl Formes and tenor Josef Erl. Formes coached him in the role of Riccardo in I puritani and performed the opera with him in the same season. He then studied singing in Vienna and made his professional opera début as the Speaker in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Hofoper in 1851. He spent the next two years in short commitments at the opera houses in Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Mainz, Würzburg and Wiesbaden. He also sang in several operas in Frankfurt including Friedrich of Telramund in Lohengrin (1852) and in the German premiere of Ambroise Thomas’s Le songe d’une nuit d’été (1853).
In 1853, Beck was hired as a member of the company at the Hofoper where he sang roles for more than the next three decades. He notably performed the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the opening of the new opera house in 1869. He also sang the role of Hans Sachs in Vienna’s first performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger in 1870 and the role of King Solomon in the world première of Karl Goldmark’s Die Königin von Saba in 1875. His other opera roles included Pizarro in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Alfonso in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, the title role in Donizetti’s Belisario, Nélusko in Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine, Tsar Peter in Meyerbeer’s L’étoile du nord, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Rossini’s William Tell, King Froila in Franz Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, Don Carlo in Verdi’s Ernani, and the title role in Verdi’s Rigoletto among others. His last opera performance was as Mikéli in Luigi Cherubini’s Les deux journées in 1885.
In the late 1880s, Beck began to show signs of mental instability and was hospitalized in a mental institution in Inzersdorf. He was eventually released in the early 1890s into the care of his son, Joseph Beck, who gave up a successful opera career to look after his father. They lived together happily first in Vienna and then in Pressburg (modern Bratislava) until Joseph became ill and died in 1903. Johann died the following year.
Johann Nepomuk Beck in the role of “Wilhelm Tell”
MARIO BASIOLA, Baritone * 12 July 1892, Annicco, Italy + 3 January 1965, Annicco, Italy;
He studied with Antonio Cotogni in Rome, where he made his début in 1918. Appearances in Florence and Barcelona led to an engagement with the S Carlo company, which toured America in 1923, and this in turn brought him to the Metropolitan in 1925. His roles there included Amonasro, Escamillo and Count di Luna. In 1930 he appeared in the American première of Felice Lattuada’s Le preziose ridicole and in that of Italo Montemezzi’s La notte di Zoraima the following year. He was also the Venetian in the first Metropolitan production of Sadko (1930). In 1933 he returned to Italy, where for many years he was a leading baritone in Milan and Rome. The enthusiastic reports of his work there were not entirely borne out when, after a serious illness, he came to Covent Garden (as Iago, Amonasro and Germont) in 1939; nor are they well supported by the recordings he made of Pagliacci and Madama Butterfly with Gigli. In 1946 he joined a company touring Australia, and in 1951 he returned there as a teacher. His earlier recordings show the full-bodied tone and flowing style which earned him a high reputation among the singers of his time. His son, Mario Basiola jr (b Highland Park, IL, 1Sept 1935), was also a successful baritone, singing in many leading houses including La Scala and the Vienna Staatsoper; his repertory included the title role in Wozzeck.
Chronology of appearance
1922 Anfiteatro Gangi di Catania Barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro)
1922 Anfiteatro Gangi di Catania Rigoletto (Rigolett)
1923 Anfiteatro Gangi di Catania Traviata (Germont)
1932 Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo Andrea Chenier (Gerard)
1932 Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo Faust (Valentino)
1932 Teatro Regio di Parma Traviata (Germont)
1933 Teatro Regio di Parma Aida (Amonasro)
1933 Teatro Regio di Parma Traviata (Germont)
1933 Teatro Regio di Parma Gioconda (Barnaba)
1933 Teatro Reale dell’Opera di Roma La forza del destino (Don Carlo di Vargas)
Courtesy: FORGOTTEN OPERA SINGERS
FERNANDO CORENA, Bass * (22 December 1916, Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland + 26 November 1984, Castagnola, Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland;
Fernando Corena (22 December 1916 – 26 November 1984) was a Swiss bass who had a major international opera career from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. He enjoyed a long and successful career at the Metropolitan Opera between 1954 and 1978, and was a regular presence at the Vienna State Opera between 1963 and 1981. His repertoire encompassed both dramatic and comic roles in leading and secondary parts, mainly within Italian opera. He was highly regarded for his performances of opera buffa characters and is generally considered one of the greatest basso buffos of the post-war era. He was heralded as the true successor to comic Italian bass Salvatore Baccaloni, and in 1966 Harold C. Schonberg wrote in The New York Times that he was “the outstanding buffo in action today and the greatest scene stealer in the history of opera”.
Life and career
Fernando Corena was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to a Turkish father (the name was Korena) and an Italian mother. He studied theology at the Fribourg University, hoping to become a priest. After winning a vocal contest, he turned his attention to music. He first studied in his native Geneva, 1937-38. He was then noticed by Italian conductor Vittorio Gui, who encouraged him to complete his vocal studies in Milan, with Enrico Romani.
At the beginning of World War II, he returned to Switzerland, where he performed regularly on radio broadcasts, and made a few appearances at the Zurich Opera House.
His official professional debut was in Trieste, as Varlaam in Boris Godunov, in 1947. He then appeared throughout Italy, singing the standard repertory, Sparafucile, Escamillo, Scarpia, etc. He made his first appearances at La Scala and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1948. In 1949, he took part in the creation of Goffredo Petrassi’s Il cordovano at La Scala in Milan. Although he did not fully surrender the serious bass roles, he steadily moved into the buffo roles and found his career moving more switftly upward. From 1950 to 1952, he sang annually at the Arena di Verona opera festival. In 1953 he made his first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff.
Corena’s Metropolitan Opera debut took place as Leporello in Don Giovanni on February 6, 1954 with Cesare Siepi in the title role, Margaret Harshaw as Donna Anna, Cesare Valletti as Don Ottavio, Lucine Amara as Donna Elvira, Roberta Peters as Zerlina, and Max Rudolf conducting. He established himself almost immediately as a favorite singer in that house. For a quarter of a century, he all but owned the great comic and character roles such as the two Bartolos, in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Benoit in La bohème, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Falstaff, Mathieu in Andrea Chénier, Melitone in La forza del destino, Mustafa in L’italiana in Algeri, the sacristan in Tosca, Sulpice in La fille du régiment, and Varlaam in Boris Godunov. He also sang a small number of serious leading roles like Lescaut in Manon and the title role in Gianni Schicchi. His final and 723rd performance at the Met was in the title role of Don Pasquale on 30 December 1978 with Beverly Sills as Norina, Alfredo Kraus as Ernesto, and conductor Nicola Rescigno.
Aside from his close relationship to New York, Corena enjoyed considerable success with opera companies both in the United States and Europe. In 1955 he sang Falstaff at the Glyndebourne Festival. In 1956 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company singing Archibaldo in Italo Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re with Beverly Sills as Fiora, Ramón Vinay as Avito, and Frank Guarrera as Manfredo. In 1957 he sang in the world premiere of two operas by Gian Francesco Malipiero at the Teatro della Pergola, Il figliuol prodigo and Venere prigioniera. In 1959 he sang Falstaff with the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. In 1960 he made his first appearance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago singing Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème and later that season Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro. That same year he made his debut at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Rossini’s Bartolo. In 1961 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Rossini’s Bartolo, returning there to sing Geronte di Ravoir in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (1961), and Sulpice (1967, 1973). In 1962 he made his first appearance at La Monnaie and in 1965 he made his debut with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 1963 he joined the roster at the Vienna State Opera where he sang regularly through 1981. He sang frequently at the Salzburg Festival between 1965–1971, portraying such roles as Don Pasquale, and Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, among others. He also appeared at the Bavarian State Opera, De Nederlandse Opera, the Opéra National de Paris, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Teatro Colón, and the San Francisco Opera.
Corena possessed a big, handsome, resonant voice that lacked sufficient flexibility to deliver accurately the complexities of Rossini’s florid writing. However, his complete involvement in his characters, and sheer physical presence and acting abilities, more than made up for any vocal technical shortcomings. Opera magazine, for instance, noted in a performance in 1954 of Barber of Seville, that as Bartolo, he was “the very picture of self-satisfied middle age. The characterization was an absolutely complete one… Nothing he did was without point, nothing he did failed to contribute to the total character”. Thus this was a performance of Barber which was “dominated by the Bartolo”.
Corena left many recordings of his best roles, notably two recordings of Mozart’s Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, under Erich Kleiber and Erich Leinsdorf, Leporello in Don Giovanni, under Josef Krips and later under Erich Leinsdorf, Mustafa in L’italiana in Algeri, three recordings of Rossini’s Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia under Alberto Erede, Erich Leinsdorf, and Silvio Varviso, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale, Fra Melitone in La forza del destino, twice with Renata Tebaldi and Mario del Monaco, and a third with Adriana Guerrini, Gianni Schicchi, Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème at least three times, etc. He also recorded the role of Rodolfo in La sonnambula, opposite Joan Sutherland in 1962. More serious roles he recorded include the King of Egypt in two recordings of Aida with Renata Tebaldi, Mathieu in Andrea Chénier, also with Tebaldi, two recordings of the Bonze in Madama Butterfly with both Anna Moffo and Leontyne Price, and the Gessler in Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell (William Tell) with Giuseppe Taddei and Rosanna Carteri.
Fernando Corena died in Lugano, Switzerland, on 26 November 1984, four weeks short of his 68th birthday.
Alla Staatsoper di Vienna (1963).
Alla Staatsoper di Vienna (1963).
Corena in “Il barbiere di Siviglia”
Fernando Corena with his wife Elisabetta.
BELÉN AMPARÁN , Mezzo-Soprano * 9 November 1927, El Paso, Texas, USA + 11 April 11, 2002, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico;
She studied at the Conservatory of Mexico City, then in Milan with Adelaide Saraceni. In 1952 she debuted at the Teatro Nuovo Milan, and in 1956 she made her debut as Giulietta at the Metropolitan Opera. She sang there until 1968. Her career in Mexico City also during the same time. She was also heard in Rome, the Liceu, Naples, Parma, Bordeaux, and Wiesbaden. Her repertoire included Carmen, Amneris, Azucena, Preziosilla,Ulrica, Orfeo and Dalila. Fricka and Olga too.
La Cieca in the featured recording.
JEROME HINES, Bass * 8 November 1921, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States + 4 February 2003, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States;
Jerome A. Hines (November 8, 1921 – February 4, 2003) was an American operatic bass who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946-87. Standing 6’6″, his stage presence and stentorian voice made him ideal for such roles as Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Mephistopheles in Faust, Ramfis in Aida, the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, the title role of Boris Godunov and King Mark in Tristan und Isolde.
Life and career
Hines was born Jerome Albert Link Heinz in Hollywood. He studied mathematics and chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, while also taking vocal lessons. Hines made his operatic debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1941, singing Monterone in Rigoletto. He changed his surname to Hines at the suggestion of his manager Sol Hurok to avoid the anti-German feelings prevalent during World War II.
In 1946, Hines made his debut at the Met as the Sergeant in Boris Godunov. He went on to sing forty-one seasons there, encompassing forty-five roles in thirty-nine operas. During this time he pursued further voice studies with Samuel Margolis and Vladimir Rosing.[citation needed] In 1953, he made his European debut with Glyndebourne Festival as Nick Shadow at the Edinburgh Festival in the first British performances of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. In 1958, he made his debut at La Scala in the title role of George Frideric Handel’s Hercules. From 1958 to 1963, he sang at Bayreuth in the roles of Gurnemanz, King Mark and Wotan.
In 1961, he first appeared at the San Carlo in the title role of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele. In 1962, he sang Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi in Moscow, famously for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on the eve of the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. He turned to coaching later in his career, founding the Opera-Music Theatre Institute of New Jersey in 1987, but he continued performing virtually until the end of his life; among his last appearances was a concert performance as the Grand Inquisitor with the Boston Bel Canto Opera in 2001 at the age of 79.
A born-again Christian and member of the Salvation Army, Hines composed an opera on the life of Jesus, I Am the Way. He sang the role of Jesus at the Met in 1968 (though not in a staged production of his opera) and performed the work many times around the world.[citation needed] He was also the bass soloist in a 1964 full recording of The Messiah with Otto Klemperer.
Hines wrote a memoir, This is My Story, This is My Song (1969) ISBN 0-8007-0313-8, and two books on singing, The Four Voices of Man (1997) ISBN 0-87910-099-0 and Great Singers on Great Singing (1982) ISBN 0-87910-025-7. He first published paper on mathematics illustrated iteration as a method of approximating roots of an equation. He wrote three papers on operator theory and one on Stirling numbers.
LILI NEMÉNYI, Soprano * 28 November 1902, Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia + 14 July 1988, Budapest, Hungary;
Lili Neményi (1902-1988) was an Hungarian opera singer.
ANITA VÄLKKI, Soprano * 25 October 1926, Sääksmäki + 27 April 2011, Helsinki;
Anita Välkki (25 October 1926, Sääksmäki – 27 April 2011, Helsinki) was a Finnish dramatic soprano who had an international career in major roles at leading opera houses.
Training and career:
Välkki trained in Helsinki and began her career as an actress and a singer in operettas in 1952. In 1954 she gave a concert in Helsinki which led to her being invited to join the Finnish National Opera. In 1960 her international career began when she appeared as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Royal Swedish Opera. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House London in the same role in 1961 and at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1962, where she was praised as “completely in her element”. She also appeared at the Met as Puccini’s Turandot and in leading roles in Wagner’s operas Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Parsifal. Välkki appeared at the Bayreuth Festival as Brünnhilde in 1963/64, and her career also took her to Mexico City, Vienna and Philadelphia in roles that included Verdi’s Aida and Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. Praised for her strong and clear voice and dramatic ability,Välkki also appeared in Finnish operas, creating the role of the Merchant’s Wife in The Horseman by Aulis Sallinen at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1975, and singing in Aarre Merikanto’s Juha in Helsinki in 1986.
Anita Välkki in Turandot 1963
GREAT SINGERS OF THE PAST 