Tullio Serafin
Tulio Serafin was one of the most respected Italian conductors of his day, especially in opera.
His higher musical education was at Milan Conservatory, where he studied composition and violin. He debuted on the podium at Ferrara in 1898, and was hired by Arturo Toscanini as an assistant conductor at La Scala opera house in Milan.
His career grew through guest conducting at major Italian opera theaters. He debuted in London in 1907 at London's Covent Garden.
In 1909 he was appointed principal conductor at La Scala, serving a term interrupted during World War I (1909-1914, 1917-1918). There he was noted for expanding the repertory away from the standard Italian repertory. He added the Italian works L'Amore dei tre re (1913) and La Nave (1918) by Montemezzi (1913). Foreign operas he introduced in their Italian premieres during this period were Richard Strauss's early opera Feursnot and his masterpiece Der Rosenkavalier, Charles Dukas' Arianne et Barbe-Bleu, Weber's Oberon, and operas by Humperdinck and Rimsky-Korsakov.
He continued introducing new operas while he was on the conducting staff of New York's Metropolitan Opera from 1924 to 1934. He led the first American performances of Puccini's Turandot, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and operas of Mussorgsky, Falla, and Giordano. He also conducted the world premieres of American operas The Emperor Jones by Louis Gruenberg and Deems Taylors' Peter Ibbetson and The King's Henchmen. During his tenure at the Met he is also credited with helping develop the career of Rosa Ponselle, who became one of the Met's leading stars. He conducted Ponselle in her Covent Garden appearances of 1931 in two operas new to that stage, Verdi's La forza del destino and Romani's Fedra.
In 1934 he returned to Italy, becoming artistic director of Teatro Reale in Rome. He continued his pioneering ways, leading the first Wagner Ring cycle in Italian and the Italian premiere of Berg's Wozzeck. After the War, he resumed leadership at La Scala for the 1946-1947 season, and premiered Britten's Peter Grimes in Italian.
He also was a noted scholar of early Italian opera. His Style, Tradition, and Conventions of Italian Melodrama of the 17th and 18th Century (Milan, 1958-1964) is a major study of its subject. Before him, only a handful of operas of the "bel canto" period and earlier regularly saw the stage, and then in performances bearing the handicap of false tradition. He edited these operas, and brought back operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. His talent as a developer of new talent (which the great singer Titto Gobbi said was "infallible") found two great interpreters of this repertory and nurtured them: Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. He conducted Callas's greatest early performances and recordings, and he led the 1959 Covent Garden production of Lucia di Lammermoor that made the career of young Joan Sutherland.
He was an undemonstrative conductor, using a quiet approach to urge the orchestra, turning stern only when confronting carelessness. He continued his innovative ways, reviving Rossini's Otello in Rome at the age of eighty-four.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo
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I Puritani - Bellini
Maria Callas, Tullio Serafin, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Rolando Panerai, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Angelo Mercuriali
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 22 Apr 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Un Ballo in Maschera
Opera - Released by Preiser Records on 27 Feb 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Moïse et Pharaon (Sung in Italian, Mono Version)
Caterina Mancini, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Orchestra Del Teatro San Carlo Di Napoli, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1900
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Turandot
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 11 Feb 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Il trovatore (Highlights. Stereo Version) (Stereo Version)
Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Opera Extracts - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Requiem (Stereo Version)
Rome Opera House Orchestra, Rome Opera House Chorus, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Norma (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Madame Butterfly, extraits (Mono Version)
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Orchestra dell'Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
La Sonnambula
Opera - Released by Myto Historical on 3 Feb 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mosè (Intégrale)
Full Operas - Released by Myto Historical on 23 Jun 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
15 Great Singers - Antonietta Stella
Antonietta Stella, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Bruno Bartoletti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Requiem (Mono Version)
Maria Caniglia, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti & Others: Opera Sinfonias
Opera - Released by Urania Records on 7 Feb 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: I Puritani
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 8 Mar 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Un Ballo in Maschera (Intégrale)
Full Operas - Released by Naxos on 11 Feb 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Raffaele Arié, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore (Mono Version)
Rosanna Carteri, Luigi Alva, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Maria Callas Sings Verdi
Maria Callas, Milan La Scala Chorus, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin, Antonino Votto, Herbert von Karajan
Opera - Released by Dynamic on 29 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paperback Opera - Mosè GA 1956
Opera - Released by Preiser Records on 4 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boito: Mefistofele
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Cesare Siepi, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cherubini: Medea (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Mirto Picchi, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo