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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Cherubini: Medea (Stereo 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 -
Verdi: La force du destin (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Richard Tucker, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 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 -
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Tullio Serafin
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Overtures by Alceo Galliera
Alceo Galliera, Tullio Serafin, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 17 Dec 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Norma
Maria Callas, Christa Ludwig, Franco Corelli, Nicola Zaccaria, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La traviata
Victoria de los Angeles, Carlo del Monte, Mario Sereni, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 May 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi : Il Trovatore
Ettore Bastianini, Antonietta Stella, Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi : Otello
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 18 Mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Norma
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Madama Butterfly - Highlights
Renata Tebaldi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Bergonzi, 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 1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Bohème - Highlights
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Gianna d' Angelo, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · La traviata
Antonietta Stella, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 25 Apr 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giacomo Puccini: Turandot (Complete Opera) (Live)
Maria Callas, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Eugenio Fernandi, Orchestra & Chorus of the Scala Opera House, Milan, Tullio Serafin
Classical - Released by Music Manager on 31 Aug 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giordano: La Mamma Morta
Maria Callas, Philarmonia Orchestra, Tullio Serafin
Opera - Released by Artemisia on 17 Mar 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Verdi: Rigoletto
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 25 Nov 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini - Il Trittico
Vincenzo Bellezza, Tullio Serafin, Gabriele Santini, Tito Gobbi, Victoria de los Angeles, Fedora Barbieri
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 12 Dec 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Norma (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Mario Filippeschi, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Norma
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo