Cesare Siepi

Cesare Siepi ( born February 10, 1923 in Milan, † July 5, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia ) was an Italian bass player who was considered one of the most famous artists of Don Giovanni.

Life

Siepi taught himself, and at the Milan Conservatory and made ​​his debut as a modest 1941 in Schio Sparafucile. In order not to serve in the mussolinischen troops, he fled in the same year in Switzerland. In 1945, he appeared as Zaccaria in Nabucco at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. From 1946 he was a highly sought after studio and stage performer (especially as a Mozart singer) both because of its powerful, flexible and sonorous male voice as well as his dazzling, hollywood -like appearance. His focus was on the bass-parts of the Italian times, but he could also be heard in selected roles of the bass - baritone range.

1948 Siepi was founded by Arturo Toscanini at La Scala in Milan to participate in the memorial concert for Arrigo Boito. From 1950 on he joined twenty-two seasons ( until 1972 ) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, he made his debut as a thereat Philip in Don Carlo. At the Salzburg Festival he performed as an opera and concert singer. In addition, Siepi appeared at the Vienna State Opera, for example, in 1967 as Don Giovanni under Josef Krips or 1974 as Padre Giuseppe Verdi's La forza Guardian del destino under Riccardo Muti. Also at La Scala Siepi was repeated to see. It was not until the late 1980s, he finished his career gradually. In 1985, he joined in Lugano on in a concert with soprano Mirella Freni, where they offered the duet La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni. In 1989, a concert at the Teatro Carani in Sassuolo instead, which is sometimes called a farewell concert. The actual farewell concert was 1994, however, at the Austria Center in Vienna ( concert performance of Bellini's Norma).

Siepi became famous as one of the outstanding performers of the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which he presented to many important theaters in the world. In 1953 he joined the Salzburg Festival in the Summer Riding School under the baton of Wilhelm Furtwängler in this opera, and thus began his title role associated with their international career.

In addition to Don Giovanni and the consignments referred Siepi also sang Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, the Boris Godunov, the Gurnemanz in Parsifal, the Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula and Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod's opera Faust.

In addition, Siepi was committed for the musical Bravo, Giovanni to Broadway.

Siepi leaves behind a wealth of recordings, including five times the Don Giovanni. Highlights he reached about the recording of Furtwängler in 1953 directed Salzburg performance or Josef Krips 1955 and the Vienna Philharmonic. This version has been highly praised, and they differed significantly from Furtwängler schwerblütiger and extremely slowed-down interpretation. Another highlight of his discography is also created famous 1955 recording of Le nozze di Figaro with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Erich Kleiber.

Pictures of Cesare Siepi

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