Afro Poli
Encyclopedia
Afro Poli was an Italian operatic baritone
, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
. He then went to Milan to further his studies with Gino Neri, and later joined the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
in 1930.
He was a leading baritone at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan from 1937 to 1955, where he sang in a wide repertoire from Mozart to verismo
, including; Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte
, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lucia di Lammermoor
, Rigoletto
, Simon Boccanegra
, L'amico Fritz
, Manon Lescaut
, La bohème
, Tosca
, Adriana Lecouvreur
, as well as Italian version of operas such as; Les pêcheurs de perles
, Manon
, Werther
, etc.
With the La Scala company, he made guest appearances in Berlin and Munich in 1946. He also appeared in Paris, London, Madrid, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, etc. He was a guest at the Holland Festival
and the Wexford Festival in the 1950s.
He was also very active on Italian Radio and Television (RAI
), notably in a production of Madama Butterfly
, in 1956, opposite two then unknown beginners, Anna Moffo
and Renato Cioni
, which has been recently released on DVD. He can also be heard on disc in complete recordings of L'elisir d'amore
, Don Pasquale
, and Pagliacci
.
Poli enjoyed a long career singing until 1969, he then turned to teaching, first in Ankara, and later in Melbourne, and gave an ultimate performance in Adelaide, as Rodolfo in La sonnambula
in 1978.
Complete Operas
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
Life and career
Poli began his vocal studies when he joined the "Società Corale Pisana" in 1925, where he was a pupil of Bruno Pizzi. He made his stage debut in 1927 at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa, as GermontLa traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
. He then went to Milan to further his studies with Gino Neri, and later joined the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
in 1930.
He was a leading baritone at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan from 1937 to 1955, where he sang in a wide repertoire from Mozart to verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
, including; Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
, L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon , based on the French novel L'ami Fritz by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian.While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after...
, Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost....
, La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...
, as well as Italian version of operas such as; Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
, Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, etc.
With the La Scala company, he made guest appearances in Berlin and Munich in 1946. He also appeared in Paris, London, Madrid, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, etc. He was a guest at the Holland Festival
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...
and the Wexford Festival in the 1950s.
He was also very active on Italian Radio and Television (RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
), notably in a production of Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, in 1956, opposite two then unknown beginners, Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation...
and Renato Cioni
Renato Cioni
Renato Cioni is an Italian operatictenor, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.Born on the Isle of Elba, the son of a fisherman, Cioni received his main musical education at the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence...
, which has been recently released on DVD. He can also be heard on disc in complete recordings of L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
, Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, and Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
.
Poli enjoyed a long career singing until 1969, he then turned to teaching, first in Ankara, and later in Melbourne, and gave an ultimate performance in Adelaide, as Rodolfo in La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
in 1978.
Discography
Recordings in 78 g. and 33 g.- Augusto Rotoli - Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera, Visione veneziana - orchestra diretta da Carlo SabajnoCarlo SabajnoCarlo Sabajno was an Italian conductor. From 1904 to 1932 he was the Gramophone Company's chief conductor and artistic director in Italy...
- Grammofono n° R-10812, matricola OM-682/II e OM-683/II, 78 giri - Afro Poli - Recital. Arie da Opere e romanze - Timaclub n° Tima 75, reg. 1932-1954 (anche inedite), 33 giri
Complete Operas
- 1932 - Donizetti, Don Pasquale - Schipa, Badini, Saraceni, Poli, Callegari - Dir. Sabajno - La Voce del Padrone SQSO 53/55 e QUALP 10121 - Riversamento in microsolco - Ediz. in 78 giri - N° Catalogo 78 giri H.M.V. 10410/24. In CD: Opera d'Oro n°1224 Mono 2CD.
- 1938 - Puccini, Turandot - Merli, Cigna, Olivero, Poli, Neroni - Dir. Ghione - Cetra 2066/81 78 giri. Riversamento in Microsolco del 1951. In 33 giri Cetra XTLP 1206/3
- 1938 - Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana - Rasa, Meloni, Melandri, Poli, Toscani - Dir. Mascagni - Orchestra e Coro dell'Opera Italiana d'Olanda - Teatro dell'Aja, Live Rec. 7 novembre 1938 - In CD Bongiovanni Bologna (GB 1005-2 - AAD) e Giuld (n°2241 - 2CD).
- 1938 - Puccini, La bohème - Gigli, Albanese, Menotti, Poli, Baracchi - Dir. Berrettoni - La Voce del Padrone QALP 10077/8 - Edizione in 78 giri.. N° Catalogo 78 giri MMV.D.B. 3448/60. - Riversamento in Microsolco del 1955, HMV-EMI.
- 1942 - Verdi, Falstaff - Stabile, Poli, Nessi, Donaggio - Dir. Erede - Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano - Telefunken GX-61009, Matrice M.DO-26637/38, 1942.
- 1950 - Donizetti - Don Pasquale - Corena, Poli, Lazzari, Gatta - Dir. Armando La Rosa Parodi - Coro e Orchestra della Scala di Milano - 2LP URLP 228 Urania.
- 1951 - Rossini, Il signor Bruschino - Bruscantini, Poli, Soley, Noni, Dalamangas - Dir. Giulini - Orchestra e Coro della RAI di Milano - Mono, (Milano, 9/24 settembre 1951) - In CD: Gop n°66329 DDD, Melodram n°50046 ADD e Walhall E.Series ADD.
- 1951 - Mascagni, L'amico Fritz - Rina Gigli, Beniamino Gigli, Poli, Pirazzini - Dir. Gavazzeni - Orchestra e Coro del Teatro S.Carlo di Napoli - In CD Archipel n. 19 2CD AAD.
- 1951 - Donizetti, Don Pasquale - Corena, Poli, La Gatta, Lazzari - Dir. La Rosa Parodi - Orchestra e Coro della Scala di Milano - Urania URLP 228 (2CD Set).
- 1952 - Donizetti, L'elisir d'amore - Valletti, Noni, Bruscantini, Poli - Dir. Gavazzeni - orchestra e Coro della RAI di Roma - Cetra LPC 1235 - Ristampa Cetra L.P.S. 3235 del 1968. Ristampa in CD Fonit-Cetra Records, 2CD.
- 1952 - Scarlatti, Il trionfo dell'amore - Berdini, Pini, Poli, Borriello, Zerbini, Zareska - Dir. Giulini - Orchestra della RAI di Milano - Cetra LPC 1223. In CD: Urania n. 277 1CD (2005).
- 1952 - Massenet, Manon - Carteri, Prandelli, Clabassi, Poli - Dir. Gui - orchestra e Coro della RAI di Milano - In CD Gop n. 66323 2CD.
- 1953 - Leoncavallo, Pagliacci - Del Monaco, Petrella, Protti - Dir. Erede - Orchestra e Coro di S. Cecilia - Decca LXT 2845/46 - Edizione a 33 giri - Ristampa in CD Mono Urania (2006) e Gop (2005).
- 1956 - Malipiero, Giulio Cesare - Bertocci, Colzani, Barbesi, Mazzini, Capecchi, Cattelani, Angioletti, Mercuriali, Poli, Meletti - Dir. Sanzogno - Orchestra e Coro della RAI di Milano - Live - 8 luglio 1956 - In CD Gop ADD - 2CD.
- 1956 - Puccini, Madama Butterfly - Anna Moffo, Cioni, Poli, Truccato Pace - Dir. Oliviero De Fabritis - Orchestra e Coro della RAI di Milano - In CD Gop ADD - 2CD (See Video).
- 1957 - Puccini, Turandot - Filippeschi, Noli, Poli, Catania - Dir. V.Bellezza - Coro e Orchestra del Teatro S.Carlo di Napoli - Live, 27 luglio 1957 Arena Flegrea di Napoli.
- 1961 - Mascagni, Le Maschere - De Muro Lomanto, Cassinelli, Berdini, Tedesco, Poli, Rizzieri, Broggini, Ferrari, Malaspina, Borgioli, Taccani - Dir. Bartoletti - Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Verdi di Trieste - Live - In CD Gala n°731 - 2CD - AAD
- 1961 - Mascagni, Il Piccolo Marat - Rossi-Lemeni, Zeani, Borsò, Rota, Poli - Pizzi (M° del Coro) - Dir. O.De Fabritiis - Live, 26 ottobre 1961 Livorno La Gran Guardia - FONE' 88 F 17-37 (2 CD)
- 1962 - Mascagni, Il Piccolo Marat - Rossi-Lemeni, Zeani, Gismondo, Fioravanti, Poli - Pizzi (M° del Coro) - Dir. O. Ziino - Live, San Remo 20 gennaio 1962 - FONIT CETRA CDON 47 (2 CD).
Filmography
- 1956 - Mi permette babbo? di Mario Bonnard - Alberto Sordi, Aldo Fabrizi, Elli Parvo, Nerio Bernardi, Amedeo Trilli, Achille Majeroni, Turi Pandolfini, Marcello Giorda, Mino Doro, Paola Borboni, Felice Minotti, Riccardo Billi, Zoe Incrocci, Gina Amendola, Franco Silva, Mario Passante, Sergio Raimondi, Furio Meniconi, Mimmo Poli, Afro Poli, Margherita Carosio, Giaconto Prandelli, Giulio Neri, Pina Bottin, Rita Giannuzzi, Gino Mattera, Renato Navarrini.
- 1958 - Le fatiche di Ercole di Pietro Francisci - Ivo Garrani, Sylva Koscina, Steve Reeves, Gianna Maria Canale, Gabriele Antonini, Aldo Fiorelli, Afro Poli, Arturo Dominici, Andrea Fantasia, Mimmo Palmara, Gina Rovere, Paola Quattrini, Lilly Granado, Gino Mattera, Willy Colombini, Lydia Alfonsi, Fabrizio Mioni, Aldo Pini.
- 1963 - La cieca di Sorrento di Nick Nostro - Diana Martin, Anthony Steffen, Leontine May, Albert Farley, Laura Nucci, Afro Poli, Paul Maxwell, Gaetano Scala.
Film-opera
- 1948 - Rossini - Cenerentola - Regia di Fernando Cerchio. - Lori Randi, (voce del mezzosoprano Fedora Barbieri(Angelina) - Gino Del Signore (Don Ramiro) - Afro Poli (Dandini) - Vito De Taranto (Don Magnifico) - Franca Tamantini, (voce di Fernanda Cadoni Azzolini (Tisbe) - Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma diretta da Oliviero De Fabritiis.
- 1956 - Puccini, Madama Butterfly - Anna Moffo, Cioni, Poli - Dir. Oliviero De Fabritis - Orchestra e Coro della RAI di Milano - bianco e nero - DVD Video Artists Int'l n. 4284.
- 1956 Tosca - Franco Corelli, Franca Duval, Afro Poli (canta Giangiacomo Guelfi). Direttore Oliviero De Fabritis - regia di Carmine Gallone.
- 1967 - Verdi, La Traviata - Anna Moffo, Bonisolli, Afro Poli (canta Gino Bechi) - regia di Mario Lanfranchi - Italia, 1967 - Durata 90 minuti ca.
- Verdi, Aida - Sofia Loren (canta Renata Tebaldi), Afro Poli - Film bianco e nero, colorato nel 2005. VHS (b/n) e DVD (colorato).
- Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor - Mario Filippeschi, N.Corradi, Afro Poli, L. Di Lelio, - Film TV b/n di P.Ballerini - Anni '50.
- Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci - Afro Poli (voce di Galliano Masini, Canio), Gina Lollobrigida, Tito Gobbi (nella duplice veste di Tonio e Silvio) - Film TV b/n di M.Costa - Anni '50.