Lodovico Graziani
Encyclopedia
Lodovico Graziani was an Italian opera
tic tenor
. According to John Warrack
and Ewan West, writing in The Oxford Dictionary of Opera: "His voice was clear and vibrant, but he lacked dramatic gifts." He is now mainly remembered for having created the role of Alfredo Germont in the world premiere of Giuseppe Verdi
's La traviata
in 1853.
, Italy, into a musical family. Three of his brothers also became professional singers, in particular his younger brother Francesco Graziani
, who became a well known baritone
and spent much of his career singing for the Royal Italian Opera (Covent Garden)
in London. Lodovico studied with Cellini and made his debut in 1845 in Bologna in Carlo Cambiaggio's Don Procopio. In 1846 he was heard at the Regio Teatro degli Avvalorati in Livorno as Elvino in Vincenzo Bellini
's La sonnambula
. He made his debut at La Scala
on 14 August 1847 in the title role of Gaetano Donizetti
's Dom Sébastien
.
In 1851, at the Théâtre-Italien's Salle Ventadour
in Paris, Graziani sang Gennaro in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia
with Marianna Barbieri-Nini
in the title role and Fortini as the Duke of Ferrara. The following season he went to La Fenice
in Venice where he was heard as Idreno in Rossini's Semiramide
, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto
, the title role of Verdi's Stiffelio
, and in the premieres of several operas by minor Italian composers. In his second season there, on 6 March 1853, he created the role of Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata
. The production was poorly received, and Verdi, who was depressed and disappointed, described Graziani's singing as "marmoreal" and "monotonous", although most of the blame for the opera's lack of success was reserved for the baritone Felice Varesi
, who sang Giorgio Germont. Graziani had not been well — one performance was cancelled because of his indisposition. Later in his career, in other Verdi roles, Graziani was more successful.
Graziani returned to the Théâtre-Italien for the 1854–1855 season to sing Manrico in Verdi's Il trovatore
, with the contralto Adelaide Borghi-Mamo
as Azucena. Verdi, who was in Paris at the time working on the Opéra
's production of Les vêpres siciliennes
, was somehow persuaded by the Italien's director Calzado to not only sanction the production, but to help supervise, without a fee. The performances, which introduced the opera to Paris beginning on 23 December 1854, were successful. (The next year Verdi sued the company for mounting productions of La traviata and Rigoletto with pirated material, but lost the case.)
Graziani returned to La Scala
in 1855 in Giuseppe Apolloni
's L'ebreo, and in 1862 performed there as Riccardo in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
. Other Verdi roles at La Scala included the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Enrico (Henri) in Giovanna de Guzman (the name used for the first Italian version of Les vêpres siciliennes).
He sang the title role in Donizetti's Dom Sébastien
at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1856, and the role of Vasco da Gama in the first Italian performance of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine
in Bologna in 1865. He also performed in Vienna (1860).
Graziani died in Fermo.
; and Vincenzo (1836–1906), also a baritone. (For more details about his brothers, see Francesco Graziani
.)
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...
tic 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...
. According to John Warrack
John Warrack
John Warrack is an English music critic, writer on music, and oboist. He is the son of Scottish conductor and composer Guy Warrack. From 1954–1961 he was music critic for The Daily Telegraph, and from 1961–1972 he was music critic for The Sunday Telegraph. From 1978–1983 he served as the Artistic...
and Ewan West, writing in The Oxford Dictionary of Opera: "His voice was clear and vibrant, but he lacked dramatic gifts." He is now mainly remembered for having created the role of Alfredo Germont in the world premiere of 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...
's 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...
in 1853.
Career
Graziani was born in FermoFermo
Fermo is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.Fermo is located on a hill, the Sabulo with a fine view, on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway....
, Italy, into a musical family. Three of his brothers also became professional singers, in particular his younger brother Francesco Graziani
Francesco Graziani (baritone)
Francesco Graziani was an Italian baritone and voice teacher. Graziani has been called the first modern baritone because his vocal attributes were well suited to the high-lying operatic parts composed by Giuseppe Verdi, with whom he worked.-Early life and career:Graziani was born in 1828 in Fermo,...
, who became a well known baritone
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...
and spent much of his career singing for the Royal Italian Opera (Covent Garden)
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...
in London. Lodovico studied with Cellini and made his debut in 1845 in Bologna in Carlo Cambiaggio's Don Procopio. In 1846 he was heard at the Regio Teatro degli Avvalorati in Livorno as Elvino in Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's 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...
. He made his debut 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...
on 14 August 1847 in the title role of 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 Dom Sébastien
Dom Sébastien
Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal is a French grand opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, based on Paul Foucher's play Don Sébastien de Portugal , a historic-fiction about King Sebastian of Portugal and his ill-fated 1578 expedition to Morocco...
.
In 1851, at the Théâtre-Italien's Salle Ventadour
Salle Ventadour
The Salle Ventadour, a former Parisian theatre in the rue Neuve-Ventadour, now the rue Méhul , was built between 1826 and 1829 for the Opéra-Comique, to designs by Jacques-Marie Huvé, a prominent architect...
in Paris, Graziani sang Gennaro in Donizetti's 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...
with Marianna Barbieri-Nini
Marianna Barbieri-Nini
Marianna Barbieri-Nini was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active career in Italy's major opera houses from 1840 through 1856. She also made appearances at the Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Real in Madrid, Her Majesty's Theatre in London, and at theatres in Paris...
in the title role and Fortini as the Duke of Ferrara. The following season he went to La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
in Venice where he was heard as Idreno in Rossini's Semiramide
Semiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
, the Duke of Mantua in 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...
, the title role of Verdi's 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...
, and in the premieres of several operas by minor Italian composers. In his second season there, on 6 March 1853, he created the role of Alfredo in Verdi's 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...
. The production was poorly received, and Verdi, who was depressed and disappointed, described Graziani's singing as "marmoreal" and "monotonous", although most of the blame for the opera's lack of success was reserved for the baritone Felice Varesi
Felice Varesi
Felice Varesi was a French-born Italian baritone with an illustrious singing career that began in the 1830s and extended into the 1860s...
, who sang Giorgio Germont. Graziani had not been well — one performance was cancelled because of his indisposition. Later in his career, in other Verdi roles, Graziani was more successful.
Graziani returned to the Théâtre-Italien for the 1854–1855 season to sing Manrico in Verdi's 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...
, with the contralto Adelaide Borghi-Mamo
Adelaide Borghi-Mamo
Adelaide Borghi-Mamo was an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international career from the 1840s through the 1880s...
as Azucena. Verdi, who was in Paris at the time working on the Opéra
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
's production of 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...
, was somehow persuaded by the Italien's director Calzado to not only sanction the production, but to help supervise, without a fee. The performances, which introduced the opera to Paris beginning on 23 December 1854, were successful. (The next year Verdi sued the company for mounting productions of La traviata and Rigoletto with pirated material, but lost the case.)
Graziani returned to 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 1855 in Giuseppe Apolloni
Giuseppe Apolloni
Giuseppe Apolloni was an Italian composer born in Vicenza, Italy. He composed a total of 5 operas, only one of which, L'ebreo was successful. He died in Vicenza....
's L'ebreo, and in 1862 performed there as Riccardo in Verdi's 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...
. Other Verdi roles at La Scala included the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Enrico (Henri) in Giovanna de Guzman (the name used for the first Italian version of Les vêpres siciliennes).
He sang the title role in Donizetti's Dom Sébastien
Dom Sébastien
Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal is a French grand opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, based on Paul Foucher's play Don Sébastien de Portugal , a historic-fiction about King Sebastian of Portugal and his ill-fated 1578 expedition to Morocco...
at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1856, and the role of Vasco da Gama in the first Italian performance of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine
L'Africaine
L'africaine is a grand opera, the last work of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French libretto was written by Eugène Scribe. The opera is about fictitious events in the life of the real historical person Vasco da Gama...
in Bologna in 1865. He also performed in Vienna (1860).
Graziani died in Fermo.
Brothers
Lodovico Graziani's three brothers who became professional singers were: Giuseppe (1819–1905), a bass; Francesco (1828–1901), a baritoneBaritone
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...
; and Vincenzo (1836–1906), also a baritone. (For more details about his brothers, see Francesco Graziani
Francesco Graziani (baritone)
Francesco Graziani was an Italian baritone and voice teacher. Graziani has been called the first modern baritone because his vocal attributes were well suited to the high-lying operatic parts composed by Giuseppe Verdi, with whom he worked.-Early life and career:Graziani was born in 1828 in Fermo,...
.)
Sources
- Budden, Julian (1978). The Operas of Verdi: 2. From Il Trovatore to La Forza del destino. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195204506.
- Kuhn, Laura, editor (2000). Baker's Dictionary of Opera. New York: Schirmer. ISBN 9780028653495.
- Meyerbeer, Giacomo; Letellier, Robert Ignatius, editor (2002). The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer: 3. The Years of Celebrity, 1850–1856. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 9780838638446.
- Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781561592289.
- Sadie, Stanley, editor; John Tyrell; executive editor (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781561592395 (hardcover). (eBook).
- Simeone, Nigel (2000). Paris: A Musical Gazetteer. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300080537.
- Walker, Frank (1982). The Man Verdi. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226871325 (paperback); ISBN 9780460037297 (hardcover, 1962).
- Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198691648.