Giacomo Aragall

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Giacomo Aragall appearing as Jaume on an album cover

Jaume Aragall i Garriga better known as Giacomo Aragall is a Spanish/Catalan tenor, born in Barcelona, Spain on 6 June 1939.

After his initial studies in Barcelona under Jaime Francisco Puig, Giacomo Aragall travelled to Milan on a scholarship from the Liceu to study with Maestro Vladimir Badiali. He soon won the Voci Verdi competition in Busseto and, in the same year (1963), made his Italian stage debut at Teatro La Fenice in Verdi's Gerusalemme and his debut at La Scala in the title role of Mascagni's L'amico Fritz. He also sang Il Cavaliere in Paul Hindemith's Cardillac, in January 1964 and Rodolfo in La bohème.

The following seasons saw him back at the Liceu with Rodolfo and, in quick succession, at opera houses in Budapest, Venice, Genoa, Palermo, Parma, Modena, Naples, Rome and Turin.

In 1966 he sang Romeo in a memorable performance of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at La Scala, opposite Renata Scotto and the young Luciano Pavarotti. The Romeo part is more often performed by a mezzo-soprano, a notable example being Agnes Baltsa on the EMI recording conducted by Riccardo Muti.

For several important international debuts, Aragall sang the role of the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto (Verona, 1965, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, both 1968, and San Francisco 1973).

Since then, Aragall has appeared in the most important houses in the world in operas including Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, La Favorita, La Traviata, Werther, Faust, Tosca, Manon, Don Carlo, Adriana Lecouvreur, Un Ballo in Maschera and Simon Boccanegra. His repertoire also includes such rarities as Massenet's Esclarmonde, which he recorded with Joan Sutherland and Donizetti's Caterina Cornaro, with Montserrat Caballé

He has received a number of honours, including the title of Kammersänger at the Wiener Staatsoper. Known for his especially beautiful voice, Aragall's singing and recording career was somewhat limited due to media shyness and stage nerves.

In 1994, he founded the Concurso Internacional de Canto Jaume Aragall, an international singing competition.