Sesto Bruscantini
Encyclopedia
Sesto Bruscantini was an Italian baritone
, one of the greatest buffo singers of the post-war era, especially renowned in Mozart and Rossini.
Bruscantini was born in Civitanova Marche
, Italy
. After obtaining a law degree, he turned to vocal studies in Rome
, with Luigi Ricci
at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
. He won a vocal contest organized by RAI
in 1947 and made his debut at La Scala
in Milan
in 1949, as Geronimo in Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto
.
Bruscantini rapidly established himself in buffo roles in opera by Mozart and Rossini such as Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni
, Cosi fan tutte
, Il turco in Italia
, L'italiana in Algeri
, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola
but also in works by Donizetti such as L'elisir d'amore
, La fille du régiment
and Don Pasquale
. In some of these works he often alternated roles, from Figaro to the Count in Nozze, Guglielmo to Alfonso in Cosi, Belcore to Dulcamara in Elisir, Malatesta to Pasquale in Don Pasquale, etc. He also took part in many revivals of opera by Pergolesi
, Scarlatti
and Cimarosa. He even recorded with Marilyn Horne
the first modern performance of Antonio Vivaldi
's Orlando Furioso
.
In the 1960s, Bruscantini started singing more lyrical and dramatic roles
in opera such as I puritani
alternating between Riccardo and Giorgio, and La favorite
singing both Alfonso and Baldasare. He also added Verdi roles such as Rigoletto
, Germont in La Traviata
, Simon Boccanegra
, Melitone in La forza del destino
, Rodrigo in Don Carlos
and Ford in Falstaff
.
Bruscantini was a regular guest at the Glyndebourne and Salzburg
festivals, the Vienna State Opera
, also appearing in Brussels, Monte Carlo, Paris, London. He sang relatively little outside Europe but did appear at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
in 1961, as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Bruscantini was married for a time to soprano
Sena Jurinac
, with whom he often appeared on stage in the 1950s.
Bruscantini enjoyed a long and distinguished career, singing well into his 60s, making his belated Metropolitan Opera
debut in 1981, as Taddeo in L'italiana in Algeri, in his two seasons at the Met
he also sang Bartolo in Il barbiere di siviglia and Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore. He also left an impressive discography, recording as late as 1986, the role of Don Romualdo in Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool
for Opera Rara
.
Sesto Bruscantini died in his native Civitanova Marche, on May 4, 2003, aged 83.
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...
, one of the greatest buffo singers of the post-war era, especially renowned in Mozart and Rossini.
Bruscantini was born in Civitanova Marche
Civitanova Marche
Civitanova Marche is a comune in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about 40 km southeast of Ancona and about 25 km east of Macerata.-Geography:...
, Italy
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...
. After obtaining a law degree, he turned to vocal studies 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...
, with Luigi Ricci
Luigi Ricci (vocal coach)
Luigi Ricci was an Italian assistant conductor, accompanist, vocal coach, and author.-Career:Luigi Ricci began studying music as a child, and at the age of only twelve, started accompanying voice lessons given by the famous baritone...
at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
. He won a vocal contest organized by 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...
in 1947 and 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...
in 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 1949, as Geronimo in Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto is an opera in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the play The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick...
.
Bruscantini rapidly established himself in buffo roles in opera by Mozart and Rossini such as Le nozze di Figaro, 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...
, 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....
, Il turco in Italia
Il turco in Italia
Il turco in Italia is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The Italian-language libretto was written by Felice Romani...
, L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
but also in works by Donizetti such as 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...
, La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
and 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 ....
. In some of these works he often alternated roles, from Figaro to the Count in Nozze, Guglielmo to Alfonso in Cosi, Belcore to Dulcamara in Elisir, Malatesta to Pasquale in Don Pasquale, etc. He also took part in many revivals of opera by Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
, Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.-Life:Scarlatti was born in...
and Cimarosa. He even recorded with Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
the first modern performance of Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
's Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
.
In the 1960s, Bruscantini started singing more lyrical and dramatic roles
in opera such as I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
alternating between Riccardo and Giorgio, and 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...
singing both Alfonso and Baldasare. He also added Verdi roles such as 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...
, Germont in 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...
, 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....
, 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...
, Rodrigo in Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
and Ford 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...
.
Bruscantini was a regular guest at the Glyndebourne and Salzburg
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
festivals, the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
, also appearing in Brussels, Monte Carlo, Paris, London. He sang relatively little outside Europe but did appear 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...
in 1961, as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Bruscantini was married for a time to soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Sena Jurinac
Sena Jurinac
Sena Jurinac Sena (Srebrenka) Jurinac Sena (Srebrenka) Jurinac ([juˈrinats] (24 October 192122 November 2011) was a Bosnian Croat/Austrian operatic soprano.Born in Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina, she studied at the Zagreb Academy of Music, and also with Milka Kostrenčić (whose other well-known...
, with whom he often appeared on stage in the 1950s.
Bruscantini enjoyed a long and distinguished career, singing well into his 60s, making his belated 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...
debut in 1981, as Taddeo in L'italiana in Algeri, in his two seasons at the Met
he also sang Bartolo in Il barbiere di siviglia and Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore. He also left an impressive discography, recording as late as 1986, the role of Don Romualdo in Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool
Emilia di Liverpool
Emilia di Liverpool is a dramma semiseria, dramatic opera, in two acts with music by Gaetano Donizetti. Giuseppe Ceccherini wrote the Italian libretto after the anonymous libretto for Vittorio Trento's Emilia di Laverpaut, itself based on Stefano Scatizzi's play of the same name...
for Opera Rara
Opera Rara
Opera Rara is a British record label, founded in the early 1970s by Americans Patric Schmid and Don White to promote concerts of rare and/or forgotten operas by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Donizetti and such other "bel canto" composers as Giovanni Pacini, Saverio Mercadante, and Federico Ricci.The...
.
Sesto Bruscantini died in his native Civitanova Marche, on May 4, 2003, aged 83.
Sources
- Dictionnaire des interprètes, Alain Pâris, (Editions Robert Laffont, 1989). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
- Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique, R. Mancini & J-J. Rouvereux, (Fayard, 1989). ISBN 2-213-01563-6