Salvatore Baccaloni
Encyclopedia
Salvatore Baccaloni was an Italian opera
tic bass, often regarded as the greatest buffo artist of the 20th century.
. After attending the Sistine Chapel
choir school as a child, he studied voice with the celebrated baritone Giuseppe Kaschmann (Josip Kasman
, 1847-1925) and cast aside his initial ambitions to become an architect. He made his professional debut as Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, at Rome's Teatro Adriano, in 1922.
He sang for the first time at La Scala
, Milan
, in 1926, in Ildebrando Pizzetti
's Debora e Jaele. Initially, he performed the standard bass parts there, such as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor
and Sparafucile in Rigoletto
. However, on the advice of La Scala's principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini
, he decided to specialise in comic roles. He thus went on to make an indelible impression as Leporello in Don Giovanni
, Dulcamara in Elisir d'amore, the title character in Don Pasquale
, Varlaam in Boris Godunov
, the title character in Falstaff
and the title character in Gianni Schicchi
. Baccaloni also sang supporting roles such as Benoit in La Bohème
and the sacristan in Tosca
, infusing them with a lot of humorous stage business. He created
several operatic roles, too, including that of the Lawyer in Umberto Giordano
's Il re
(at La Scala in 1929) and parts in Riccardo Zandonai
's La Farsa amorosa (Rome, 1933) and Vigna by Guerrini (Rome, 1935).
Baccaloni enjoyed a successful international career as well, making his
debut at London's Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
, as Timur in Turandot
in 1928; at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
as Melitone in La forza del destino
in 1930; at the Glyndebourne Festival as Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte
in 1936; at the San Francisco Opera as Leporello in 1938; and, at the Metropolitan Opera
, on 7 December 1940, as Bartolo in Nozze di Figaro. He was to remain at the Met until 1962.
Baccaloni had his own Opera company which toured the United States in the 1940's, Baccaloni Co..
Baccaloni also sang often in Philadelphia with a succession of opera companies from 1951 through to 1966. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company
in 1951 in the title role of Don Pasquale, his debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
in 1956, as Benoît/Alcindoro La bohème, and his debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
in 1959, as Benoît/Alcindoro.
Salvatore Baccaloni is generally considered to have been the finest comic bass of his era. Rotund in build, he possessed a rich and resonant voice, coupled with impeccable diction and, during the years of his prime in the 1925-50 period, a commendable degree of musicianship. However, he could also display a lack of artistic restraint from time to time when 'live' on stage, owing to the abundance and the exuberance of his comedic talent.
Baccaloni died in New York City
, on New Year's Eve 1969, aged 69. His voice is preserved on a number of recordings, many of which have been reissued on CD. He also appeared in several movies during the 1950s and '60s.
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 bass, often regarded as the greatest buffo artist of the 20th century.
Life and career
Baccaloni was born in RomeRome
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...
. After attending the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
choir school as a child, he studied voice with the celebrated baritone Giuseppe Kaschmann (Josip Kasman
Josip Kašman
Josip Kašman or Giuseppe Kaschmann, , was a famous operatic baritone...
, 1847-1925) and cast aside his initial ambitions to become an architect. He made his professional debut as Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, at Rome's Teatro Adriano, in 1922.
He sang for the first time 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...
, 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 1926, in Ildebrando Pizzetti
Ildebrando Pizzetti
Ildebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music.- Biography :Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation of 1880" along with Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero. They were among the first Italian composers in some time whose primary contributions...
's Debora e Jaele. Initially, he performed the standard bass parts there, such as Raimondo in 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....
and Sparafucile 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...
. However, on the advice of La Scala's principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, he decided to specialise in comic roles. He thus went on to make an indelible impression as Leporello in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Dulcamara in Elisir d'amore, the title character in 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 ....
, Varlaam in Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, the title character in Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
and the title character in Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
. Baccaloni also sang supporting roles such as Benoit 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...
and the sacristan 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...
, infusing them with a lot of humorous stage business. He created
several operatic roles, too, including that of the Lawyer in Umberto Giordano
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
's Il re
Il re
Il re is a novella or opera in one act and three scenes by composer Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on 12 January 1929.-Performance history:...
(at La Scala in 1929) and parts in Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai was an Italian composer.-Biography:Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria–Hungary....
's La Farsa amorosa (Rome, 1933) and Vigna by Guerrini (Rome, 1935).
Baccaloni enjoyed a successful international career as well, making his
debut at London's 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...
, as Timur in Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
in 1928; at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
as Melitone 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...
in 1930; at the Glyndebourne Festival as Alfonso in Cosi 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....
in 1936; at the San Francisco Opera as Leporello in 1938; and, at 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...
, on 7 December 1940, as Bartolo in Nozze di Figaro. He was to remain at the Met until 1962.
Baccaloni had his own Opera company which toured the United States in the 1940's, Baccaloni Co..
Baccaloni also sang often in Philadelphia with a succession of opera companies from 1951 through to 1966. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company
Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company
The Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was actively performing at the Academy of Music between 1950 and 1955. Fausta Cleva served as the company's first General Director and conductor...
in 1951 in the title role of Don Pasquale, his debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
The Philadelphia Grand Opera Company was the name of four different American opera companies active at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the twentieth century. The last and most well known of the four was founded in November 1954 with the merger of the Philadelphia Civic...
in 1956, as Benoît/Alcindoro La bohème, and his debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius...
in 1959, as Benoît/Alcindoro.
Salvatore Baccaloni is generally considered to have been the finest comic bass of his era. Rotund in build, he possessed a rich and resonant voice, coupled with impeccable diction and, during the years of his prime in the 1925-50 period, a commendable degree of musicianship. However, he could also display a lack of artistic restraint from time to time when 'live' on stage, owing to the abundance and the exuberance of his comedic talent.
Baccaloni died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, on New Year's Eve 1969, aged 69. His voice is preserved on a number of recordings, many of which have been reissued on CD. He also appeared in several movies during the 1950s and '60s.
Sources
- Alain Pâris, Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
- D. Hamilton (ed.),The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Opera (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
- Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6
External links
- Salvatore Baccaloni at Find-A-Grave