Gaetano Fraschini
Encyclopedia
Gaetano Fraschini was an Italian
tenor
. He created many roles in 19th century opera
s, including five composed by Giuseppe Verdi
. His voice was "heroic ... with a baritonal quality, ... yet Verdi and Donizetti
appreciated his ability to sing softly and with subtlety."
, Fraschini studied with Moretti before debuting there in 1837 as Tamas in Gaetano Donizetti
's Gemma di Vergy
. He continued singing Donizetti, performing in Torquato Tasso
in Bergamo
in 1839 and in Marino Faliero
at La Scala
in 1840.
Beginning in that year he was engaged at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, where he remained continually until 1853. There he created roles in numerous operas by Giovanni Pacini
, including La fidanzata corsa, La stella di Napoli, La regina di Cipro, Merope and Romilda di Provenza, and Faone in Saffò
; he also created Gerardo in Caterina Cornaro
for Donizetti in 1844. He sang in other Donizetti operas, too, including Linda di Chamounix
, Maria di Rohan
, La favorite
, Poliuto
, and Lucia di Lammermoor
. The force with which he delivered Edgardo's curse in the latter led to his nickname, "tenore della maledizione".
An early tenore di forza, he created several Verdian roles, beginning with Zamoro in Alzira
in 1845. He was also the first Corrado in Il corsaro
(1848), Arrigo in La battaglia di Legnano
(1849), the title role in Stiffelio
(1850), and Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera
(1859). He also sang in Oberto
, Ernani
, I Lombardi, I masnadieri
, Luisa Miller
, and Il trovatore
. 1856 saw him singing Henri in Les vêpres siciliennes
in Rome, and in 1858 he was Gabriele Adorno
in Simon Boccanegra
for Naples.
Internationally, too, he sang a good deal of Verdi: at Her Majesty's Theatre
in 1847 where he took part in the first London
performance of I due Foscari
; in 1863 at Madrid
, where he sang in La forza del destino
; and the following year at the Théâtre Italien
in Paris
where appeared in both in both La traviata
and Rigoletto
.
Monaldi described Fraschini's voice as like "a silver gong struck with a silver hammer", and when he retired in 1873, bidding his farewell in Rome
as Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia
and in Florence as Don Alvaro in La forza del destino and Lyonel in Flotow's Martha
, "his voice and technique were still intact". Fraschini died in Naples in 1887. The opera house in Pavia is named for him.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
tenor
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...
. He created many roles in 19th century opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, including five composed by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. His voice was "heroic ... with a baritonal quality, ... yet Verdi and Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
appreciated his ability to sing softly and with subtlety."
Biography
Born in PaviaPavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
, Fraschini studied with Moretti before debuting there in 1837 as Tamas in Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Gemma di Vergy
Gemma di Vergy
Gemma de Vergy is a tragedia lirica or tragic opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Emanuele Bidéra. It is based on the tragedy Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux by Alexandre Dumas père, which was later to become the subject of the opera The Saracen by the Russian composer...
. He continued singing Donizetti, performing in Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso (opera)
Torquato Tasso is a melodramma semiseria, or 'semi-serious' opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti and based on the life of the great poet Torquato Tasso. The Italian libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, who used a number of sources for his text, including works by Giovanni Rosini, Goethe,...
in Bergamo
Bergamo
Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
in 1839 and in Marino Faliero
Marino Faliero (opera)
Marino Faliero is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Giovanni Emanuele Bidéra wrote the Italian libretto, with revisions by Agostino Ruffini, after Casimir Delavigne's play...
at 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...
in 1840.
Beginning in that year he was engaged at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, where he remained continually until 1853. There he created roles in numerous operas by Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas...
, including La fidanzata corsa, La stella di Napoli, La regina di Cipro, Merope and Romilda di Provenza, and Faone in Saffò
Saffò
Saffò is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Pacini on a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on a play by Franz Grillparzer, after the legend of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho.-Performance history:...
; he also created Gerardo in Caterina Cornaro
Caterina Cornaro (opera)
Caterina Cornaro ossia La Regina di Cipro is a tragedia lirica, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Giacomo Sacchèro wrote the Italian libretto after Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges' libretto for Halévy's La reine de Chypre...
for Donizetti in 1844. He sang in other Donizetti operas, too, including Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on May 19, 1842.-Performance history:...
, Maria di Rohan
Maria di Rohan
Maria di Rohan is a melodramma tragico, or tragic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano, after Lockroy and Edmond Badon's Un duel sous le cardinal de Richelieu, which had played in Paris in 1832.- Roles :- Synopsis :The comte de...
, La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
, Poliuto
Poliuto
Poliuto is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte . It was composed in 1838 and first performed on 30 November 1848 at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples...
, and 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....
. The force with which he delivered Edgardo's curse in the latter led to his nickname, "tenore della maledizione".
An early tenore di forza, he created several Verdian roles, beginning with Zamoro in Alzira
Alzira (opera)
Alzira is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Alzire, ou les Américains by Voltaire.The first performance was at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, on August 12, 1845...
in 1845. He was also the first Corrado in Il corsaro
Il corsaro
Il corsaro is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, from a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on Lord Byron's poem The Corsair...
(1848), Arrigo in La battaglia di Legnano
La battaglia di Legnano
La battaglia di Legnano is an opera in four acts, with music by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian-language libretto by Salvadore Cammarano. It was based on the play La Bataille de Toulouse by Joseph Méry. The opera received its first performance on 27 January 1849, at the Teatro Argentina, Rome...
(1849), the title role in Stiffelio
Stiffelio
Stiffelio is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, from an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Le pasteur, ou L'évangile et le foyer by Émile Souvestre and Eugène Bourgeois...
(1850), and 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...
(1859). He also sang in Oberto
Oberto (opera)
Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio is an opera in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an existing libretto by Antonio Piazza probably called Rocester....
, Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
, I Lombardi, I masnadieri
I masnadieri
I masnadieri is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, based on Die Räuber by Friedrich von Schiller....
, Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller. The first performance was given at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on December 8, 1849...
, and Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
. 1856 saw him singing Henri in Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838 and offered to Halevy and Donizetti before Verdi...
in Rome, and in 1858 he was Gabriele Adorno
Gabriele Adorno
Gabriele Adorno was the fifth Doge of Genoa. A member of the noble Adorno family, he was elected on March 14, 1363 to succeed Simone Boccanegra, who had died in office; he remained in the position until August 13, 1370, and was succeeded by Domenico di Campofregoso.Adorno is a character in...
in 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....
for Naples.
Internationally, too, he sang a good deal of Verdi: at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in 1847 where he took part in the first London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
performance of I due Foscari
I due Foscari
I due Foscari is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on a historical play, The Two Foscari by Lord Byron....
; in 1863 at Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, where he sang in La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
; and the following year at the Théâtre Italien
Comédie-Italienne
Over time, there have been several buildings and several theatrical companies named the "Théâtre-Italien" or the "Comédie-Italienne" in Paris. Following the times, the theatre has shown both plays and operas...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where appeared in both in both 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...
and 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...
.
Monaldi described Fraschini's voice as like "a silver gong struck with a silver hammer", and when he retired in 1873, bidding his farewell in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
as Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
and in Florence as Don Alvaro in La forza del destino and Lyonel in Flotow's Martha
Martha (opera)
Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
, "his voice and technique were still intact". Fraschini died in Naples in 1887. The opera house in Pavia is named for him.
Sources
- Casaglia, Gherardo, "Fraschini" (in Italian), Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 1 February 2010.
- Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781561592289.
- Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198691648.