The Barber of Seville and the Branding of Italian Opera

Edit Huffington Post 18 Mar 2016
On March 17 1816 at Rome's Teatro Argentina, a three-week run of a new opera ended. Its title ... Nonetheless, the opera was given a second chance which resulted in triumph ... ... Tito Gobbi and Maria Callas ... Maria was so excited by her collaboration with Tito she even allowed him to have what is regarded as a soprano's most prized possession -the closing high note of the piece- which as we know is the lasting impression left with the audience ....

Facing the music: John Mauceri

Edit The Guardian 24 Aug 2015
What was the first record you bought?. Madama Butterfly with Maria Callas ... Horowitz’s return recital at Carnegie Hall; that Nilsson/Windgassen/Böhm Tristan at Bayreuth when I was 20 years old; the last night of the “old” Metropolitan Opera HouseThen again, Maria Callas’s return to the Metropolitan Opera, after an absence of seven years, to sing Tosca with Franco Corelli and Tito Gobbi was also “most memorable” ... One more ... ....

Jon Vickers obituary

Edit The Guardian 13 Jul 2015
One of the greatest operatic tenors of his generation whose technique and imaginative vocal colouring helped him transcend the merely melodramatic ... With simple gestures, words and notes, a heroic character was made manifest ... In this he sang the title role, with Luchino Visconti directing and Carlo-Maria Giulini conducting, sharing the stage with Tito Gobbi and Boris Christoff, and more than holding his own ... Henrietta died in 1991 ... ....

Tim Ashley's opera guide: marital hell

Edit The Guardian 06 Jan 2015
In the last of his opera guides, Tim Ashley selects five great works that explore what happens when they didn’t live happily ever after, and shows where to find the best versions online ... Photograph. Tristram Kenton/Tristram Kenton. Tim Ashley. Tuesday 6 January 2015 07.00 GMT ... Verdi ... Erede was no Kleiber, but the recording does allow us to hear and see the exceptional pairing of Mario del Monaco’s Otello with the great Tito Gobbi’s Iago ... ....

Tim Ashley's opera guide: comedies

Edit The Guardian 09 Dec 2014
In the second in a six-part series, Tim Ashley seeks out the best opera productions available to watch complete on YouTube. This week. five comedies in which nothing is quite as straightforward as it might seem ... Photograph ... Tim Ashley ... Mozart ... Rossini ... Tito Gobbi was among the finest of all interpreters of the title role ... A great singer-actor, Gobbi captures Falstaff’s self-deluded but warm-hearted vitality with wonderfully subtle glee ... ....

Classical CD reviews

Edit Taipei Times 03 Dec 2014
GREAT PERFORMANCES. The Royal Opera. Boxed set of 32 CDs. Opus Arte OA CD9024 D. COSI FAN TUTTE. Mozart, Currentzis. Sony 88765466162. THE WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER, Books 1 and 2. Bach. John Butt, harpsichord. Linn CDK 463 ... Strauss ... Iago was to have been sung by Tito Gobbi, the very informative notes (by Nicholas Payne) tell us ... He was nervous, and might have been more so, Payne writes, had he known that Gobbi was in the opening night audience ... ....

Robert Davi croons Sinatra, his sound full of admiration, not imitation

Edit Newsday 13 Nov 2014
Add comment Reprints + -. advertisement . advertise on newsday ... Already registered?. Log in ... 23 ... As a result, he strained his voice and wrote to famed baritone Tito Gobbi, who performed at La Scala in Milan as well as the Rome Opera ... After hearing Davi sing, Gobbi asked Davi to attend his vocal master class in Florence, Italy, in the mid-70s, and then arranged for Davi to study with Samuel Margolis, who taught opera great Robert Merrill ... ....

Robert Davi croons Sinatra with the smooth sound of admiration, not imitation

Edit Newsday 13 Nov 2014
Add comment Reprints + - ... Photo Credit. AP / see caption. advertisement . advertise on newsday ... 23 ... As a result, he strained his voice and wrote to famed baritone Tito Gobbi, who performed at La Scala in Milan as well as the Rome Opera ... After hearing Davi sing, Gobbi asked Davi to attend his vocal master class in Florence, Italy, in the mid-70s, and then arranged for Davi to study with Samuel Margolis, who taught opera great Robert Merrill....

Magda Olivero obituary

Edit The Guardian 14 Sep 2014
Italian prima donna with one of the longest careers in the history of opera. Magda Olivero in San Francisco in 1979. Photograph. Ira Nowinski/Corbis ... Olivero was born in Saluzzo, and her father was a judge ... Olivero's only complete opera recordings are the early Turandot and Fedora (1969), in which she was partnered by Mario del Monaco and Tito Gobbi – a rare example of a record company casting an opera with veteran performers ... ....

Get ready for S.F. Opera season with DVDs and videos

Edit San Francisco Chronicle 22 Aug 2014
The San Francisco Opera’s 2014 fall season is as exclusively Italianate as any in recent memory, with only one American work, Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah,” to vary the otherwise unbroken stream ... Norma. The season opens Sept ... Susannah ... Un Ballo in Maschera ... Her 1953 recording from La Scala (EMI) remains the touchstone for this role, and she’s wonderfully partnered by Giuseppe di Stefano and Tito Gobbi under the baton of Victor De Sabata....

Carlo Bergonzi: Operatic tenor acclaimed for his golden tones, superb phrasing and his unrivalled interpretations ...

Edit The Independent 29 Jul 2014
Carlo Bergonzi, the greatest stylist among the postwar generation of tenors, entranced opera lovers in Europe and America for more than 40 years with his golden-toned voice and superlative phrasing ... During the two years that he remained a baritone, Bergonzi sang various roles including Henry Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor) and once, replacing an ailing Tito Gobbi, Rigoletto ... He was, as he had always suspected, a tenor ... ....

Nickel City Opera gambling on a masterpiece said to be cursed

Edit Buffalo News 24 Jun 2014
Staging any opera is a perilous proposition. It’s expensive and complicated ...Tosca” is considered cursed ... 1. In 1965 at the Metropolitan Opera, Maria Callas, as Tosca, was confronting the villain Scarpia, played in that particular production by Tito Gobbi ... Gobbi wrote in his memoirs that when Tosca was supposed to be stabbing him, she whispered, “Grazie!” ... Once, Callas mistakenly did stab Gobbi for real....

Why opera as an artform creates a unique beauty

Edit The Guardian 24 May 2014
Brian Barder. London ... There is an underlying truth that the modern opera singer has to deal with ... Far and away the most beautifully sung Don Giovanni I ever heard was Tito Gobbi at the Royal Opera House many years ago. Gobbi was also a very fine actor with both voice and body, but I am confident that "sexism" would prevent him being cast in the role today since Don Giovanni is now expected to get his shirt off at some point. Peter Dawson....
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