Pasquale Amato
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Pasquale Amato (21 March 1878–12 August 1942) was an Italian operatic baritone singer whose career had its heyday in New York.
Amato was born in Naples, where he studied at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Beniamino Carelli and Vincenzo Lombardo. He made his debut at the Teatro Bellini in 1900 as Germont pere in La traviata and thereafter sang in Genoa and Milan. He appeared at Covent Garden in 1904 with the San Carlo Company, but, although he was well-received, the experience as not repeated. He assisted at the Verdi Commemoration at the Bussetto Theatre in 1913 under Toscanini, in La traviata and as Verdi's Falstaff. Before going to America he had already also appeared as Amonasro, Marcello and Rigoletto, as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande, as Tristan und Kurwenal, Scarpia and Barnaba, among various other roles.
He sang at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, regularly from 1908 to 1921. He appeared there in Gluck's Armide in 1910 with Olive Fremstad, Caruso, Louise Homer and Alma Gluck; in that year he was the first Jack Rance in an American La fanciulla del west (with Caruso, Dinh Gilly, Antonio Pini-Corsi and others). In February 1913 he created the role of Cyrano in the opera by Walter Damrosch, with Frances Alda and Riccardo Martin. He appeared in the 1913 Un ballo in maschera with Caruso, Emmy Destinn, Margarete Matzenauer and Frieda Hempel, and with them in Boito's Mefistofele; in La Gioconda, with Destinn and Ober; he was especially admired as Escamillo, supporting Geraldine Farrar in Carmen (with Caruso and Frances Alda), when the opera was first successfully revived in 1914 after the reign of Emma Calvé. In the same year he was Manfredo (opposite Adamo Didur and Lucrezia Bori) in L'amore dei tre re when that came to New York, and in 1915 he created the first Napoleon in Giordano's Madame Sans Gêne, with Farrar as Catherine. In 1916 he created for USA the role of Giovanni in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini (with Alda and Giovanni Martinelli), and in 1918 that of Gianetto (with Farrar, Caruso, and Didur) in Mascagni's Lodoletta.[1]
He then retired and returned to Italy to live, but in 1933, 25 years after his New York debut, he reappeared there at the New York Hippodrome to sing the role of Germont pere again. He became head of studies in voice and in opera at Louisiana State University in 1935.
Amato had a distinctive ringing vocal tone and although not quite so powerful as Mario Sammarco nor having so dark and dramatic a timbre as Titta Ruffo (two baritones with whom his audiences were familiar in similar repertoire), his voice was securely supported, appealing in its focus, tonal quality and openness of vowels, thoroughly resonant and carrying, and masterly in phrasing and cantabile. He was one of the most distinctive singers of his age.[2] He made a number of fine recordings for HMV/Victor Records, including duets with Caruso and others of the famous Metropolitan lineup of his day. He also sings on the Fonotipia Records label.
[edit] Notes
- ^ These details drawn from Gustav Kobbé's Complete Opera Book, passim.
- ^ Paraphrased from Scott 1977, 116-7.
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
- A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924).
- G. Kobbé, The Complete Opera Book (Putnam, London 1935 printing).
- H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (OUP, London 1974 printing).
- M. Scott, The Record of Singing Volume I (Duckworth, London 1977).
