Nicola Rescigno

Nicola Rescigno ( born May 28, 1916 in New York City; † August 4, 2008 in Viterbo ) was an American conductor of Italian origin.

Life and work

Nicola Rescigno was born into a musical family and was born in Manhattan. His father was a longtime trumpet player in the orchestra of the Met, at times he also worked with the New York Philharmonic. 1929 Rescigno drew to Italy, where he ( with doctoral degree in law. ) And at the Collegio Mondragone in Frascati, then at the Conservatory in Rome studied law at Ildebrando Pizzetti and at Giannini and Giorgio Polacco music. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he returned to New York, where he was after completing his studies at the Juilliard School made ​​his debut as a conductor. During an American tour of the Teatro San Carlo, he led in December 1943 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a performance of La traviata and then also conducted further performances during the tour. He had his next engagement. Appeared at the opera houses of Hartford, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Havana He preferred, as well as later, the Italian opera of the 19th century with works by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini.

In 1953 he helped found the Lyric Theatre of Chicago, the Lyric Opera in Chicago today, with and guided them from 1954 to 1956 as its first musical director. In November 1954 he accompanied here Maria Callas in her American debut in Norma with Mirto Picchi Giulietta Simionato and then in La traviata with Tito Gobbi and Giulietta Simionato and in Lucia di Lammermoor with Giuseppe Di Stefano and Giangiacomo Guelfi. At her next stint in 1955, she sang under his baton I Puritani with Ettore Bastianini and Nicola Rossi - Lemeni, Il trovatore with Jussi Björling and Madama Butterfly with Di Stefano.

In 1957 he was co-founder of the Dallas Opera, which he headed until 1990 as artistic director and chief conductor. He helped there Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Teresa Berganza, Magda Olivero, Jon Vickers, Alfredo Kraus and director Franco Zeffirelli to their first appearances before American audiences. He also headed the American premieres of Alcina, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Orlando furioso and L' incoronazione di Poppea. In 1966 he conducted the first performances of this house of Virgil Thomson's Fantasy in Homage to England in Earlier and 1988 Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers.

He scored with Tullio Serafin and Georges Prêtre to Maria Callas 's most valued conductors, with up to 1969 he made several recordings for EMI in 1958. Working with her, he continued also in Dallas. In November 1957, he conducted her aria recital of works by Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. He subsequently started her appearances as Traviata at Covent Garden, and their performances during the tour of America in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Washington, Montreal, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1959, he appeared with her ​​on at Carnegie Hall and in a joint concert tour of Europe, which led Others to Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Hamburg and Munich. In 1961 she presented in Epidaurus Medea. In March 1965, the last time both met at the Paris Opera for a performance of Tosca.

1978 Rescigno made ​​her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera, conducting Don Pasquale with Beverly Sills. Followed in 1980 he has conducted with José Carreras L' elisir d' amore, L' Italiana in Algeri in 1981 with Marilyn Horne and Rockwell Blake and 1982/82 La traviata.

Invitations have taken him to many major opera houses in Europe and America, to San Francisco, Glyndebourne, London, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Buenos Aires and from Hamburg.

Rescigno had long been a resident of Rignano Flaminio, a village near Rome. Since his retirement from the Opera in 1990 he occupied him constantly with his partner of four decades, Aldo Marcoaldi. On July 30, he was admitted after a fall with a broken femur in the Belcolle Hospital of Viterbo, where he died of respiratory problems and heart failure.

He is the uncle of the conductor Joseph Rescigno.

Discography (selection)

  • La traviata; Choir and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, London; Maria Callas ( Violetta ); Cesare Valletti ( Alfredo ); Mario Zanasi ( Germont ); Live recording in 1958, Arkadia
  • Medea; Choir and Orchestra of the Civic Opera in Dallas; Maria Callas ( Medea ), Jon Vickers (Jason ); Teresa Berganza ( Neris ); Nicola Zaccaria ( Creon ); Live recording 1958 melodrama
  • Maria Callas in Concert - Hamburg 1959; DVD 1999 EMI
  • Il Pirata; Choir and Orchestra of the American Society of New York; Pier Miranda Ferraro ( Gualtiero ); Maria Callas ( Imogene ); Costantino Ego ( Ernesto ); Live recording in 1959, EMI
  • Medea; Choir and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, London; Maria Callas ( Medea ), Jon Vickers (Jason ); Fiorenza Cossotto ( Neris ); Nicola Zaccaria ( Creon ); Live recording 1959 melodrama
  • Tosca; Chorus and Orchestra of the Paris Opera; Maria Callas ( Tosca ); Renato Cioni ( Cavaradossi ); Tito Gobbi ( Scarpia ); Live recording 1965 melodrama
  • La Voix Humaine; Choir and Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice Venice; Magda Olivero (voice), live recording in 1970, melodrama
  • Tosca; Chorus of the Royal Opera, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London; Mirella Freni ( Tosca ); Luciano Pavarotti ( Cavaradossi ); Sherrill Milnes ( Scarpia ); 1978 Decca Records
  • L' elisir d' amore; Choir and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera in New York; Luciano Pavarotti ( Nemorino ); Judith Blegen (Adina ); Brent Ellis ( Belcore ); Sesto Bruscantini ( Dulcamara ), DVD 1981 Pioneer Artists
  • Lucia di Lammermoor; Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London; Edita Gruberova ( Lucia); Alfredo Kraus ( Edgard ); Renato Bruson ( Enrico ); 1983 EMI
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