Ferruccio Tagliavini
Encyclopedia
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
mainly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Tagliavini was hailed as the heir apparent to Tito Schipa
Tito Schipa
Tito Schipa was an Italian tenor. He is considered one of the finest tenori di grazia in operatic history...
and Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism...
in the lyric-opera repertory due to the exceptional beauty of his voice, but he did not sustain his great early promise across the full span of his career.
Tagliavini studied in Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
with Italo Brancucci
Italo Brancucci
Italo Brancucci was an Italian composer and singing teacher. He taught at the Parma Conservatory for many years. Several of his pupils went on to have major opera careers, including Luigi Infantino, Rinaldo Pelizzoni, Elvina Ramella, Ferruccio Tagliavini, and Renata Tebaldi...
and in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and perplexingly with Amedeo Bassi, a well-known dramatic Verismo and Wagnerian Italian tenor of the pre-World War I era whose voice (as recorded) could not be more unlike Tagliavini's (see M.Scott Record of Singing 1978). It was also in Florence that he made his professional debut in 1938 as Rodolfo in 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...
.
He swiftly gained recognition as one of the leading tenore di grazia
Tenore di grazia
Leggiero Tenor, also called tenor leggiero or tenore di grazia, is a lightweight, flexible tenor type of voice. The tenor roles written in the early 19th century Italian operas are invariably leggiero tenor roles, especially those by Rossini such as Lindoro in L'italiana in Algeri, Don Ramiro in La...
of his time in operas such as Il barbiere di Siviglia, 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 ....
, 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...
, 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...
, La Traviata
La 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...
, 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....
, 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...
and L'arlesiana
L'arlesiana
L'arlesiana is an opera in three acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. It was originally written in four acts, and was first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico di Milano in Milan...
.
Debuts at many of the world's major opera houses ensued. They included: La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, in 1942; the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, in 1946; the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, New York City, in 1947 (as Rodolfo in La bohème); the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
in 1948; the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, London, in 1950; and, finally, the Paris Opéra
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
in 1951.
During the 1950s, Tagliavini took on heavier roles such as Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Cavaradossi in 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...
and Faust in Mefistofele
Mefistofele
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
; but the quality of his voice suffered as a consequence.
Tagliavini retired from the stage in 1965. He continued, however, to give recitals until the mid-1970s. He left behind an impressive discography. The finest of his recordings are those that he made of operatic arias during his heyday in the 1940s. In them, one can fully appreciate his remarkable skill at soft, or mezza voce, singing. He also made a few opera films, notably Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1946 with Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
and Italo Tajo
Italo Tajo
Italo Tajo was an Italian operatic bass, particularly associated with Mozart and Rossini roles.Tajo was born in Pinerolo, Piedmont, and studied violin and voice at the Music Conservatory of Turin with Nilde Stichi-Bertozzi. He made his stage debut in 1935, as Fafner , under Fritz Busch...
.
Tagliavini married the soprano Pia Tassinari
Pia Tassinari
Pia Tassinari was an Italian soprano and later mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertories....
in 1941. He made several recordings with her and they appeared together often on stage. There is a recording available of them singing Massenet's opera 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....
.
Selected studio recordings
- 1942 - Mascagni - L'amico Fritz - Ferruccio Tagliavini, Pia TassinariPia TassinariPia Tassinari was an Italian soprano and later mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertories....
, Saturno MelettiSaturno MelettiSaturno Meletti was an Italian operatic bass-baritone particularly associated with the standard Italian repertory and contemporary works....
- Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Pietro MascagniPietro MascagniPietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
- 1952 - Bellini - La sonnambula - Lina PagliughiLina PagliughiLina Pagliughi was an Italian-American opera singer. Based in Italy for the majority of her career, she made a number of recordings and established herself as one of the world's finest lyric coloratura sopranos of the 1930s and '40s.-Career:Pagliughi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian...
, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Cesare SiepiCesare SiepiCesare Siepi was an Italian opera singer, generally considered to have been one of the finest basses of the post-war period. His voice was characterised by a deep, warm timbre, and a ringing, vibrant upper register. On stage, his tall, striking presence and elegance of phrasing made him a natural...
- Coro Cetra, Orchestra della Rai Torino, Franco CapuanaFranco CapuanaFranco Capuana was an Italian conductor.Born in Fano in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino, he was the younger brother of mezzo-soprano Maria Capuana. He became associated with the Teatro di San Carlo in 1930 and La Scala in 1937. In 1940 he conducted the premiere of Ghedini's opera La pulce d'oro...
- 1952 - Puccini - La bohème - Rosanna CarteriRosanna CarteriRosanna Carteri was an Italian soprano primarily active in the 1950s through the mid-1960s.Rosanna Carteri was born in Verona but was raised in Padua. She studied with Cusinati and started singing in concert at the age of twelve...
, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Elvina Ramella, Giuseppe TaddeiGiuseppe TaddeiGiuseppe Taddei was an Italian baritone, who performed mostly the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi....
, Cesare Siepi, Pier Luigi Latinucci - Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Gabriele SantiniGabriele SantiniGabriele Santini was an Italian conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory....
- 1954 - Puccini - Madama Butterfly - Clara PetrellaClara PetrellaClara Petrella was an Italian operatic soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, an outstanding singing-actress nicknamed the "Duse of Singers"....
, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Mafalda Masini, Giuseppe Taddei - Coro Cetra, Orchestra della Rai Torino, Angelo Questa
- 1954 - Verdi - Rigoletto - Giuseppe Taddei, Lina Pagliughi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Giulio NeriGiulio NeriGiulio Neri was an Italian operatic bass, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.Neri studied first in Florence with Ferraresi, and completed his studies in Rome. He made his stage debut in 1935, at the Teatro delle Quattro Fontane in Rome, where he sang mostly comprimario roles...
- Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Angelo Questa
- 1954 - Verdi - Un ballo in maschera - Mary Curtis VernaMary Curtis VernaMary Virginia Curtis Verna was an American operatic soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory....
, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Giuseppe ValdengoGiuseppe ValdengoGiuseppe Valdengo was an Italian operatic baritone. Opera News said that, "Although his timbre lacked the innate beauty of some of his baritone contemporaries, Valdengo's performances were invariably satisfying — bold and assured in attack but scrupulously musical."-Biography:Valdengo first...
, Pia Tassinari, Maria Erato - Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Angelo Questa
- 1954 - Massenet - Werther - Ferruccio Tagliavini, Pia Tassinari, Vittoria Neviani, Marcello Cortis - Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Francesco Molinari-PradelliFrancesco Molinari-PradelliFrancesco Molinari-Pradelli was a prominent Italian opera conductor. He studied piano and composition at Bologna, and graduated from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome in 1938. He made his debut at La Scala in 1946 and his Covent Garden debut in 1956...
- 1955 - Cilea - L'Arlesiana - Pia Tassinari, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Paolo SilveriPaolo SilveriPaolo Silveri was an Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, one of the finest Verdi baritones of his time....
, Gianna GalliGianna GalliGianna Galli was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active international career from the 1950s through the 1970s. She specialized in the lyric soprano repertoire and was particularly known for her portrayals of Puccini heroines.-Singing career:Born in Modena, Galli began studying singing in...
- Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Arturo BasileArturo BasileArturo Basile was an Italian conductor. He was known mostly for his work in the Italian operatic repertoire, especially Puccini and Verdi....
- 1955 - Von Flotow - Marta - Elena Rizzieri, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Pia Tassinari, Carlo TagliabueCarlo TagliabueCarlo Tagliabue was an Italian baritone.After studies with Leopoldo Gennai and Annibale Guidotti he made his debut in Lodi, Lombardy, in Loreley and Aida. His debuts in Genoa , Torino, La Scala , Rome , and Naples were all in Tristan und Isolde...
- Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (sung in Italian)
- 1956 - Boito - Mefistofele - Giulio Neri, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Marcella PobbéMarcella PobbéMarcella Pobbé , was an Italian operatic soprano who sang a wide range of roles in both the lyric and spinto repertory....
- Coro Teatro Regio Torino, Orchestra della Rai Torino, Angelo Questa
- 1956 - Puccini - Tosca - Gigliola FrazzoniGigliola FrazzoniGigliola Frazzoni , is an Italian operatic soprano.She was born in Bologna, where she studied with Marchesi and Secchiaroli, and made her debut at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, as Mimi in La bohème....
, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Giangiacomo GuelfiGiangiacomo GuelfiGiangiacomo Guelfi is an operatic baritone, particularly associated with Verdi and Puccini. Born in Rome, he studied law before turning to vocal studies, in Florence, with the great baritone Titta Ruffo. Giangiacomo made his stage debut in Spoleto, as Rigoletto in 1950...
- Coro e Orchestra della Rai Torino, Arturo Basile
- 1959 - Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor - Maria Callas, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Piero Cappuccilli - Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra, Tulio Serafin
Filmography
- Voglio vivere così (1941)
- La donna è mobile (1942)
- Ho tanta voglia di cantare (1943)
- Il barbiere di Siviglia (1946)
- Al diavolo la celebritàA Night of FameA Night of Fame is a 1949 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli and Steno.-Cast:* Marcel Cerdan as Maurice Cardan* Ferruccio Tagliavini as Gino Marini* Mischa Auer as Bernard Stork* Marilyn Buferd as Ellen Rawlins...
(1949) - I cadetti di Guascogna (1950)
- Anema e core (1951)
- Vento di primavera (1959)
Sources
- The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, (Simon and Schuster, 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
- Guide de l’opéra, Roland Mancini & Jean-Jacques Rouvereux, (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (Second Edition), Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, (Oxford University Press, 1980). ISBN 0-19-311318-X