Carlo Bergonzi
Tenor Carlo Bergonzi, for many, epitomized Verdian grace and style, not only for his generation, but for the entire 20th century. His parents were great opera lovers and took him to see Il trovatore when he was just six. Bergonzi responded enthusiastically: the next morning, his parents found him in the kitchen, singing "Di quella pira" as best he could, and staging the scene with kitchen implements. He performed under slightly more formal auspices, in church choirs and in child roles in the Busseto Opera. When he was 14, he auditioned for Edmondo Grandini. Grandini decided that Bergonzi was a baritone and offered him lessons. Bergonzi moved to Brescia to study with him, though his studies were interrupted by the war and later by his imprisonment for anti-Nazi activities in a German prisoner-of-war camp. When the war ended, he returned to Italy and began studies at the Boito Conservatory in Parma.
At the conservatory, he was still considered a baritone. He studied with Ettore Campogalliani and after graduation, made his professional debut as Schaunard in La bohème in 1947, his debut in a lead as Rossini's Figaro in 1948 at Lecce, and continued to sing leading baritone roles there, even at one point replacing Tito Gobbi as Rigoletto. However, he himself remained convinced that he was a tenor. Finally, having used what he had learned at the conservatory and recordings of other tenors, particularly Caruso, Schipa, Gigli, and Pertile, and what he remembered from singing on stage with Schipa and Gigli, he made his debut as a tenor at Bari as Andrea Chénier in 1951 and soon sang two major Verdi tenor roles: Riccardo (Un ballo in maschera) and Alvaro in La forza del destino. To keep his voice flexible, he also sang lighter roles, such as Nemorino and even Nero in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea. In 1953 he made his La Scala debut creating the role of Mas'Aniello in Napoli's opera and his London debut as Alvaro, his American debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1955, and his Met debut the following year. His Covent Garden debut, again as Alvaro, was not until 1962. He became a regular performer at nearly all of the great opera houses, renowned not only for his singing, but for consistency. He kept his versatility throughout his career, alternating lyric and spinto roles and even some verismo roles. He was never a great stage actor, nor did he have the matinee-idol looks of some of his contemporaries, but was an excellent vocal actor, singing each role with the colors he felt it demanded, rather than a "one voice fits all" approach. During the 1980s he began to focus more on recitals and concert performances and also became a well-known teacher, concentrating on technique. He created a voice school in Busseto, and was instrumental in the "Concorso internazionale di voci verdiane," a competition for aspiring Verdi singers.
He recorded all of his major Verdi roles. He often referred to his 1976 recording on Philips of 31 major arias from every Verdi opera, which won the Deutscher Schalplattenpries, Premio della critica discographica italiana, and the Stereo Review Record of the Year awards, as the recording of which he was proudest. His complete recording of Pagliacci on Deutsche Grammophon for von Karajan shows him thoroughly at home in the verismo style. On Sony, he made an exemplary recording of Italian songs.
© TiVo
Similar artists
-
Carlo Bergonzi Sings Verdi, Puccini and More
Carlo Bergonzi, Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome
Classical - Released by Regis Records on 1 Jan 2008
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 -
Classical Soundtracks Collection - Great Movie Themes, Vol. 4
Coro E Orchestra Arena Di VR, Carlo Bergonzi
Film Soundtracks - Released by Classic Art, S.R.L. on 11 Jul 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini Madama Butterfly - Highlights
Sir John Barbirolli, Coro del Teatro dell'Opera, Roma, Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma & Sir John Barbirolli, Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor, A. 46
Thomas Schippers, London Symphony Orchestra, Beverly Sills, Carlo Bergonzi, Piero Cappuccilli
Opera - Released by Urania Records on 6 Jan 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Early Recordings 1951-1960
Classical - Released by Preiser Records on 11 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini - Madama Butterfly
Sir John Barbirolli, Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Rolando Panerai, Anna Di Stasio, Coro del Teatro dell'Opera, Roma
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 17 Feb 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
GRANDI VOCI CARLO BERGONZI -VERDI Una collana dedicata con registrazioni originali Decca e Deutsche Grammophon rimasterizzate con le tecniche più moderne che ne garantiscono eccellenza tecnica e artistica
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 12 May 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Airs & Canzoni de l'époque baroque italienne
Classical - Released by Ensayo on 1 May 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bergonzi Carlo Weihnachten
Classical - Released by Orfeo on 22 Oct 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Il Trovatore
Carlo Bergonzi, Antonietta Stella, Ettore Bastianini
Opera - Released by Urania on 1 Jan 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Stereo Version)
Birgit Nilsson, Carlo Bergonzi, Sir Georg Solti, Orchestra dell'Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Aida
Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Carlo Bergonzi, Wiener Singverein, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1959
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Italian Opera Classics
World - Released by Classic Music International on 9 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
"Madama Butterfly" Highlights (Puccini) (Stereo)
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi
Classical - Released by The Digital Gramophone on 16 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carlo Bergonzi: A Discographic Career
Opera - Released by Urania Records on 24 Jul 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carlo Bergonzi: In Concert
Classical - Released by Bongiovanni on 1 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · rigoletto
Carlo Bergonzi, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Rafael Kubelik, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 27 Mar 2023
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: Il Trovatore
Opera - Released by Opera d'Oro on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo