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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Rossini: Ouverture de L'Italienne à Alger (Mono Version)
Tullio Serafin, Orchestra dell'Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gioacchino Rossini: La Cenerentola
Coro Del Teatro San Carlo Di Napoli, Orchestra Del Teatro San Carlo Di Napoli, Tullio Serafin
Opera - Released by Cantus Classics on 1 Jan 1953
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · Otello
Jon Vickers, Leonie Rysanek, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra Dell'Opera Di Roma
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 3 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: La Donna Del Lago
Tullio Serafin, Rosanna Carteri, Cesare Valletti
Opera - Released by Urania on 5 Feb 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · La bohème
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 24 Apr 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Callas à la Scala (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Aïda (Mono Version)
Maria Caniglia, Beniamino Gigli, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
MEYERBEER: GLI UGONOTTI
Classical - Released by Nar Classical on 12 Apr 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · suor angelica
Victoria de los Angeles, Fedora Barbieri, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 1 Jan 1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
VERDI: "MESSA DA REQUIEM"
Classical - Released by Nar Classical on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Callas sings verdi at la scala
Tullio Serafin, Antonino Votto, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano
Classical - Released by Vinyle Numérique on 16 Nov 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Italian Opera Duets (Album of 1954)
Giuseppe Di Stefano, Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Casta Diva on 30 Sep 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boito · mefistofele
Cesare Siepi, Mario del Monaco, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 7 Apr 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
HANSON : Merry Mount (Tibbett, Swarthout) (1934)
Gota Ljungberg, Gladys Swarthout, Lawrence Tibbett, New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus, New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Tullio Serafin
Opera - Released by Naxos on 20 Nov 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La traviata (Mono Version)
Victoria de los Angeles, Carlo del Monte, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1900
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Rigoletto, extraits (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor, extraits (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Les héroïnes de Puccini (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Philharmonia Orchestra, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo