Mario del Monaco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mario del Monaco (Florence July 27, 1915 - October 16, 1982 in Mestre) was an Italian tenor and is regarded by his admirers as one of the greatest tenors of the 20th Century.
Del Monaco was born to a musical upper-class Florentine family. As a young boy he studied the violin but had a passion for singing. He graduated from the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro, where he first met and sang with Renata Tebaldi with whom he would be considered as an opera dream team of the fifties. Maestro Raffaelli recognized his talent and helped start his career. He married Rina Filippini in 1941.
The tenor's career began with his debut on December 31, 1940, as Pinkerton at the Puccini Theater in Milan. During the following years he became famous first in Italy, then around the world, for his powerful, metallic voice, a real heldentenor voice (though he mostly kept with the Italian repertoire), which made him one of the tenor superstars of the fifties next to Giuseppe di Stefano and Franco Corelli.
His trademark role was Verdi's Otello which he first tackled in 1950 and kept refining through his career. It is said that he performed this opera a remarkable 427 times. However the book published by Elisabetta Romagnolo: Mario Del Monaco, Monumentum aere perennius, Azzali 2002 lists only 218 appearances as Otello. The tenor was buried in his Otello costume.
Del Monaco was partnered with Tebaldi in a long series of Verdi and Puccini operas recorded for Decca. On the same label was his 1969 recording of Fedora, opposite Magda Olivero and Tito Gobbi.
In 1975 he retired from stage.
He was handsome and powerful, with idiomatic phrasing and a ringing voice which got him the nickname "Brass Bull of Milan", although he was widely criticized for being unsubtle in his vocal interpretations.
[edit] Bibliography
- Gianni Gori, Mario Del Monaco. Mille guerrier m'inseguono..., con prologo di Marzio Pieri, coll. Grandi Voci 1, 2008, Zecchini Editore, pagg. 206 con discografia consigliata
[edit] External links
- Mario Del Monaco, Hope Page, Official International Website - "A non-profit website created in memory of the greatest dramatic tenor of the 20th Century."
