Ettore Bastianini (September 24, 1922 – January 25, 1967) was an Italian opera singer who was particularly associated with the operas of Verdi. He had a prolific international career between 1945 and 1965 which was cut short by throat cancer. He began his professional career as a bass working in opera houses throughout Italy and in tours to Egypt and Venezuela during the 1940s. In 1952 he launched a career as a baritone that quickly earned him worldwide acclaim and brought him to the stages of many of the major opera houses in Europe and the United States. He was a frequent performer at La Scala between 1954-1963 and at the Vienna State Opera between 1958-1964. He was also a member of the Metropolitan Opera between 1954-1957 and again in 1965 during the last year of his career.
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Born in Siena, Bastianini first began performing at the age of fifteen while apprenticed to a pastry chef, Gaetano Vanni, who discovered Bastianini's voice and encouraged him to join the choir of his hometown's Cathedral. Between 1937-1938 he sang as a bass during masses and religious functions at the church. In 1939 he began singing lessons under Fathima and Anselmo Ammanati who continued training him as a bass. He sang his first professional concerts in 1940 and 1941 in Asciano and Siena at the Fortezza Medicea and Teatro dei Rozzi. In 1942 he won first prize at the 6th National Singing Contest at the Teatro Comunale Florence but was soon drafted into the Italian Air Force which prevented him from immediately enjoying the scholarship accompanying the prize.
After serving in the Italian Air Force between 1943-1944 toward the end of World War II, Bastianini resumed his career. On January 28, 1945, in a Siena concert, he sang the bass arias "Vecchia zimarra" from Puccini's La bohème and "La Calunnia" from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. That November, he made his operatic debut as Colline in La bohème at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. His only son, Jago, was born in 1945.
In 1946 Bastianini was finally able to enjoy the scholarship he'd won four years earlier and began studying at the Teatro Comunale Florence. He sang in recitals there alongside other future opera greats like Mirto Picchi, Fedora Barbieri, and Rolando Panerai. That same year he appeared in numerous operas with smaller Italian opera houses such as the Teatro Verdi in Florence. Among the roles he portrayed that year were his first performances of Zio Bonzo in Madama Butterfly, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.
In 1947 Bastianini toured Egypt, singing in Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza, sharing the stage with Gino Bechi and Maria Caniglia and reprising the roles of Don Basilio and Sparafucile. He also sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. He spent the next year singing the bass repertoire in opera houses throughout Italy, including the Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. On April 24, 1948, Bastianini made his La Scala debut as Teiresias in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. In 1949 he toured Egypt again and flew to Caracas, Venezuela to sing in productions of Aida (Ramfis), La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Rigoletto.
Bastianini gave his first broadcast recital for the Italian Radio on 29 December 1950. Earlier that year he had toured Egypt again and appeared in operas in Italy. He toured Egypt once more, just before returning to Italy for his final bass performance in April 1951 at Turin's Teatro Alfieri as Colline. Believing his voice was better suited to the baritone repertoire and encouraged by his teacher, Luciano Bettarini, Bastianini left the stage for seven months, studying and re-training his instrument.
Bastianini made his debut as a baritone on January 17, 1952, in Siena, as Germont in Verdi's La traviata. His performance was not well received, and he left the stage again for a brief period of intense vocal exercise to secure the top of his voice. Upon his return just weeks later, he performed as Rigoletto in Siena to rave reviews. This was followed by a successful Amonasro in Pescara and a triumphant return to the role of Germont in Bologna with Virginia Zeani as Violetta. He also gave several acclaimed performances at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino including both Count Tomsky (Spring of 1952) and Prince Yeletsky (Spring of 1954) in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in Prokofiev's War and Peace (Spring of 1953), and the title role in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa (1954).
In 1953 Bastianini performed opposite Maria Callas for the first of many times as Enrico Asthon in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Comunale Florence. That same year he sang the role of Carlo Gérard in Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier for the first time at the Teatro Regio di Torino. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Germont on December 5, 1953, opposite Licia Albanese as Violetta and Richard Tucker as Alfredo. The following January he sang Enrico to Lily Pons's Lucia and Jan Peerce's Edgardo at the Met. On May 10, 1954, he made his debut as a baritone at La Scala, in the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Renata Tebaldi as Tatyana.
In the Fall of 1954, Bastianini joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he sang regularly through May 1957. His roles at the Met during this time included Amonasro in Aida, Carlo Gérard, Count Di Luna in Il Trovatore, Enrico, Germont, Marcello in La Bohème, Escamillo in Carmen, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, and the title role in Rigoletto. He later returned to the Met in the Spring of 1960 to portray several roles including Don Carlo in La Forza del Destino. He returned to the Met again in January 1965 where he spent most of that year singing in several of his prior roles with the company and performing Scarpia in Tosca. His 87th and final performance at the Met was as Rodrigo on December 11, 1965. It was also coincidentally the last performance of his career.
While performing regularly at the Met during the mid 1950s, Bastianini continued to perform occasionally in Europe and in other opera houses in the United States. On May 28, 1955, he appeared opposite Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano in a famous La Scala production of La traviata, directed by Luchino Visconti and conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini. The following summer he made the first of several recordings for Decca Records: Alphonse XI in La Favorita and Don Carlo in La forza del destino. On October 31, 1955 he debuted with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Riccardo Forth in Vincenzo Bellini's I puritani with Callas as Elvira, Di Stefano as Arturo, and Mariano Caruso as Bruno. He sang regularly in Chicago between 1955-1958, as Count di Luna, Don Carlo, Germont, and Marcello. In 1956 he returned to La Scala to sing his first Renato in Un ballo in maschera and he portrayed Figaro in The Barber of Seville at the Arena di Verona.
After leaving the Met in May 1957, Bastianini made his first appearance on television in a filmed version of Il trovatore with Leyla Gencer, Mario Del Monaco and Fedora Barbieri. That summer he sang Don Carlo in a legendary production of Verdi's Ernani at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Dimitris Mitropoulos with Anita Cerquetti, Mario del Monaco, and Boris Christoff. This was followed by performances in four different operas in seven days in Bilbao and a return to La Scala in December 1957 for another highly lauded production: Un ballo in Maschera under Gianandrea Gavazzeni with Callas, Di Stefano, and Giulietta Simionato.
In 1958 Bastanini sang his first Scarpia at the Teatro di San Carlo. This was followed by three other new roles to his repertoire at La Scala that summer: Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, Ernesto in Il Pirata (with Callas and Franco Corelli) and the title role in Nabucco. In July of that year he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Rodrigo under conductor Herbert von Karajan and then returned to Bilbao in September for several more performances. Towards the end of the year he sang four roles in five days at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and performed his only baroque opera role, Lichas in Handel's Hercules under Lovro von Matačić, at La Scala.
In September 1958 Bastanini sang for the first time at the Vienna State Opera as Scarpia opposite Renata Tebaldi's Tosca. He fell in love with the opera house and performed regularly there until his career ended in 1965. In the Fall of 1959 he made his debut with Dallas Opera singing Enrico opposite Callas's Lucia, and Figaro. The following December he sang his first Michonnet in Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur at the Teatro di San Carlo. He returned to that house in 1960 to sing Don Carlo in Ernani, a role he also portrayed at the Salzburg Festival that year. Also in 1960, Bastanini sang the role of Severo in Donizetti's Poliuto in a production that marked the return of Callas to La Scala.
In February 1961 Bastanini made his debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Rigoletto. That same month he appeared in two productions at La Scala: Lucia di Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland and I Puritani with Renata Scotto. In December 1961 he returned to La Scala to sing his first and only performances of Rolando in Verdi's rarely heard opera La battaglia di Legnano. In 1962 he made his first and only appearance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Riccardo, returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing the title role in Rigoletto, and sang Count Di Luna at La Scala and the Salzburg Festival in addition to several performances with the Vienna State Opera. His mother died in April of that year of cancer in Sienna.
In November 1962 Bastianini was diagnosed with a tumor in his throat just months after his mother's death from cancer. He discussed his illness with only his family and some very close friends, fearing the negative impact that the news could have on his career. He spent the first four months of 1963 receiving treatments in Switzerland. Bastianini returned to the stage in April 1963 in several of his staple roles at the Vienna State Opera. Noting that his voice seemed dryer than previously, critics gave him mixed reviews. As his health declined further, Bastanini became depressed, uncertain whether he should continue singing.
On July 2, 1963 Bastianini attended the famous Palio di Siena and won a considerable amount of money betting on the horse race. The win raised his spirits considerably. Shortly thereafter, he appeared successfully as Count di Luna at the Salzburg Festival. The following autumn, Bastianini debuted in Tokyo in a much-lauded production of Il Trovatore, broadcast live on Japanese television. In December of that year he made his last appearance at La Scala as Rodrigue in Don Carlos.
Bastiani's health declined steadily over the last two years of his career. His performances were inconsistent, some excellent and others poor. During 1964, he sang his last new role, Mefistofele in La Damnation de Faust, at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples to good reviews. However, his performance of Il Trovatore in Prato that year was reportedly disastrous. In 1965, his final year on the stage, he returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago and sang Amonasro. He also performed Scarpia at the Teatro Comunale Florence and Iago at the Cairo Opera House. He spent most of 1965 at the Met with mixed results. Some performances were well received but he was booed during a performance of Tosca. His final operatic appearance was as Posa in Verdi's "Don Carlo" at the Met on 11 December 1965. Bastianini finally succumbed to his cancer in January 1967 and was buried in Sirmione.
Most of his studio recordings were made for Decca Records and for Deutsche Grammophon, and they accurately represent his rich and expressive voice. (Unfortunately some of them are currently withdrawn.) They include:
Verdi: Il Trovatore with Corelli, Price, Simionato. Karajan [cond.] Live in Salzburg. 1962. (DG) There is also a live album of his concert in Chicago with Tebaldi and Simionato, conducted by Sir Georg Solti and issued by Decca, as well as a Neapolitan song recital. When von Karajan recorded J. Strauss's "Die Fledermaus" for Decca, Bastianini was also invited to sing in the Gala scene. The song he chose, "Anything you can do, I can do better" from Berlin's musical "Annie Gets Your Gun", was the only non-Italian piece he ever recorded. His duet partner, Giulietta Simionato, had also learned her words phonetically.