Scipio Colombo

Scipio Colombo ( born May 25, 1910 in Vicenza, Italy, † April 13, 2002 in Gern Bach, Germany ) was an Italian opera singer in the vocal range baritone.

Education and Career

Scipio Colombo first studied philosophy at the University of Padua before he found the music. A violin studies with Prof. Orlando Sabbatini and Prof. Vasco Zaccaria in Milan followed by a brief activity as a violinist in the opera orchestra. But then he found during his vocal studies at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, which took place at the conclusion of Giuseppe Venturini and Giuseppe De Luca (Rome), his way as an opera baritone. Several won competitions including the Teatro Sperimentale in Alessandria (Piedmont), paved the way for him to his successful debut in 1937 as Marcello in La Bohème ( Puccini ).

Involvement in World premieres

During the Second World War, he sang in most of the major opera houses in Italy, including La Scala in Milan. In 1947 he sang the world premiere of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, and Britten's Peter Grimes, later Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. He also participated in the world premieres of the Canticum Sacrum by Igor Stravinsky in 1956 and Ildebrando Pizzetti Cagliostro (Milan, 1953) with. He was also known for his role in shaping contemporary Italian works, especially in Dallapiccola's Il prigioniero (Florence, 1950).

International career

Appearances at the Vienna State Opera ( Tosca, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto by G. Verdi) and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London ( Tosca, Puccini ), and in Aix -en- Provence ( Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte, WA Mozart ) and Bregenz Festival made ​​him internationally known. Scipio Colombo sang almost all the major baritone roles of the Italian repertoire; Rigoletto, di Luna, Germont, Count Almaviva, Don Giovanni, Guglielmo, Lescaut, Marcello, Cavaradossi - total, there are about 80 large rolls in his personal catalog of works. He stepped in almost all well-known opera houses of Europe, such as La Scala in Milan, the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and other opera houses, as well as the Maggio Musicale in Florence, on.

Teaching in the age

From 1959 he worked as a singing teacher, among other things, he taught at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe and at the Music Academy in Basel. Even to old age, he taught in his retracted but idyllic house in Gern Bach singing pupils including the mezzo-soprano Xenia Maria Mann, who lives in Trier mezzo- soprano Eva Günschmann, the singer and singing teacher Eva Wymola, singer and voice teacher / choir director Solvey Kretschmann and the opera tenor Jeroen Bik.