Giangiacomo Guelfi
Giangiacomo Guelfi ( born December 21, 1924 in Rome, † February 8, 2012 in Bolzano ) was an Italian opera singer in the vocal range baritone.
Life
Guelfi studied law at the University of Florence, but decided then to be trained his voice professionally. His singing teacher in Florence included the famous singer Titta Ruffo and Mario Basiola. In 1950 he won the Concorso del Teatro Sperimentale di Spoleto. His debut as an opera singer, he was then in 1950, shortly after winning the competition, in the title role of Rigoletto at the Teatro Nuovo in Spoleto; the conductor was Ottavio Ziino.
In 1950 he made his debut at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze and at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 1952 he sang for the first time at La Scala; there he met in the course of his career again and again. His debut at La Scala took place on 17 March 1952 as Lo Straniero ( title role ) in the opera Proserpina e lo Straniero of Juan José Castro. At La Scala, he participated in several world premieres of operas today largely forgotten, so among other things, in March 1954 as Herod ( Erode ) in the opera La Figlia di Diavolo Virgilio Mortari. 1977, he joined at La Scala in the role of Neri Chiaramantesi in the rarely performed opera La cena delle beffe by Umberto Giordano on. In 1978 he participated in Livorno farewell to the stage.
In Italy, he performed at the Teatro Bellini in Catania ( 1952), at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1954 as Emperor in Agnese di Hohenstaufen by Gaspare Spontini, 1956 as Don Carlo di Vargas in La forza del destino ), at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1958; as Telramund in Lohengrin and Escamillo in Carmen ), at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (1959, as Escamillo ) and at the Opera of Rome (1959, 1974). Since 1952, he performed regularly at the Opera Festival in the Baths of Caracalla. Multiple Guelfi also worked at the Festival at the Arena di Verona (1955-1956, 1958, 1960, 1962-1969 and 1975 ), mainly as Amonasro in Aida.
Guelfi guested in other European countries, among others, at the Drury Lane Theatre in London (1957-1958 as Gérard in Andrea Chénier, 1971 Nelusco in The African Woman ), the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona ( 1963), at the Opera of Monte Carlo ( 1965 as Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West in 1973 as Michele in Suor Angelica and Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana ), at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon (1965, title role in Guglielmo Tell), at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (1970), on the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1972 ) and at the Covent Garden Opera (1975, as Scarpia in Tosca ).
In 1965 Guelfis debut at the Vienna State Opera as Gérard. He also sang the roles Amonasro (1974 ), Scarpia (1974) and Jack Rance (1976).
International guest performances overseas he gave at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1954 ), at the Opera House in Rio de Janeiro (1956, 1964 in the title role of the opera Macbeth and as Scarpia in Tosca ), at the Opera House in Cairo (1961) and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City ( season 1969/1970 as Scarpia and as Jack Rance ).
Giangiacomo Guelfi was in 1953 with the violinist and soprano Laura Carol (* 1923, actually Cagol ) married. Guelfi lived with his wife in Bolzano. He died at the age of 87 years at the Hospital of Bolzano; where he had previously been treated one week.
Repertoire
Guelfi sang on the opera stage an extensive repertoire. Mainly he interpreted the Italian opera singers. He took a focus on the roles of heroic baritone and character baritone in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and the verismo. He also took some brilliant games for baritone from the French opera singers ( Escamillo ).
Other important opera roles were Don Carlos in Ernani, musician Miller in Luisa Miller, Conte di Luna in Il trovatore, the title roles in Nabucco (1966, La Scala ) and Simone Boccanegra, Iago in Otello, Marcello in La Bohème, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and the villains Lindorf / Coppelius / Dapertutto / Dr. Miracle in The Tales of Hoffmann. By Richard Wagner Guelfi sang only the Friedrich von Telramund in Lohengrin; these, however, only in Italian. His Telramund can be heard in a live recording from 1954 from the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Guelfis partners were Renata Tebaldi and Elena Nicolai; it conducted Gabriele Santini.
Audio
The voice of Giangiacomo Guelfi is held in numerous sound recordings. There are a number of complete opera recordings, including studio recordings, with the Italian record company Fonit Cetra before, so as Scarpia (1955), Amonasro (1956 ) and as Phanuel in Nerone by Arrigo Boito (1957, live). At Deutsche Grammophon Guelfi adopted in 1965 under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, the role of Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana on; his associates were Fiorenza Cossotto and Carlo Bergonzi.
In addition, numerous live recordings were released on CD in recent years. Guelfis main roles are thus almost fully, partially documented in several recordings on records or other sources.