Ezio Pinza

Ezio Pinza , actually Fortunato Pinza , (born May 18, 1892 in Rome , Italy , † May 9, 1957 in Stamford , Connecticut , United States ) was an Italian opera singer ( bass ).

Life

Ezio Pinza, to whom the critic Dietmar Holland certified an "erotic basso cantante" with regard to the recording of Don Giovanni , conducted by Bruno Walter in 1942, originally worked as a cyclist, but with which he was less successful. Nevertheless, he began to study singing, first in Ravenna , then in Bologna .

Ezio Pinza made his debut in La Spezia as early as 1914 , but his career only began after the First World War . In 1919 he made his debut in Florence and in 1921 at La Scala in Milan . There he met Arturo Toscanini , with whom he worked more often from then on. From 1926 to 1948 Ezio Pinza, who had left Italy because of his rejection of the Mussolini regime , was a member of the New York Metropolitan Opera . Here he sang several times under Toscanini's direction. In 1934 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Don Juan , in which role he could be seen in Salzburg until 1939 .

Pinza's main roles included Mozart's Don Giovanni and Figaro, Don Basilio in Rossini's Barber of Seville , Escamillo in Carmen , the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunow and Mephisto in Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele and in Charles Gounod's Faust .

After 1948 Ezio Pinza turned increasingly to the lighter repertoire, also because of the decrease in his vocal range. During this second career he took on film roles and appeared on television. On Broadway , Ezio Pinza appeared in the role of Emile de Becque in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific with exceptional success.

Web links

• Biography with photos
• Ezio Pinza in the Internet Movie Database (English)