Fabio Giongo

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Fabio Giongo (born September 8, 1928 in Milan , † September 13, 2019 in Nuremberg ) was an Italian opera singer ( bass baritone ).

Life

Education and early years

Fabio Giongo's parents were both from Trieste . You were born as Austrians during the Habsburg Monarchy and were “influenced by Central Europe”. Giongo first studied veterinary medicine at the University of Genoa . After discovering his "beautiful voice" he took singing lessons, first in Genoa , then later in Rome and Milan. In 1948, at the age of 19, he made his debut at the Genoa Opera House as Colline in La Bohème . At that time, Giongo still assumed in terms of his career that he would continue to sing as a "Seriöser Bass". After his debut, he first appeared in Spoleto and worked as a concert singer in Rome. With the Colline he also made guest appearances at the Monte Carlo Opera House in 1952 .

He received his first permanent engagement in 1953 through the mediation of a conductor from Ghent , Belgium , whom he had met in Italy, at the Royal Opera House in Ghent and Antwerp , initially for two years. After two years, the contract was extended for another two years until 1957. In his first season in Ghent, he immediately sang 15 major specialist roles, where he gradually prepared for the change to the heroic bass-baritone field. In 1957 Giongo came to Germany, where he was engaged at the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden , of which he was a member until 1960. There he sang a. a. under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen the roles Wotan / Wanderer and Hagen.

From 1960 to 1968 he was then a permanent member of the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg . There he worked a. a. with Alberto Erede and Horst Stein . His Düsseldorf roles included Simon Boccanegra , Jago , Sebastiano , Golaud and the title role in Der Gefangene . Giongo's first important international guest appearances also took place during this period.

Fixed engagement at the Nuremberg Opera House

At the beginning of the 1968/69 season he was engaged at the Nuremberg Opera House , where he made his debut as Don Giovanni . Giongo belonged to the Nuremberg ensemble for 25 years without interruption until the end of the 1993/94 season. In the course of his engagement in Nuremberg he sang "many important and great parts" of the Italian opera literature, especially in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi , as well as the hero and character baritone. Don Giovanni was considered to be his special highlight. Giongo was particularly valued as a Wagner interpreter. In his first season in Nuremberg, after Don Giovanni, he also sang Jago, Don Pizarro and the title role in Cardillac . He was also in the 1968/69 season at the side of Grit van Jüten der Tonio in a new production of Leoncavallo's Der Bajazzo . In 1978 he took over the Alberich in Das Rheingold (premiere: July 1978; director: Hansgünther Heyme , conductor: Hans Gierster ) in the Nürnberger Ring cycle, which was then broken off for financial reasons .

His other roles at the Nuremberg Opera House included a. a. Macbeth , Ford , Monterone in Rigoletto (among others in a gala performance in May 1988 at the side of Leo Nucci ), Scarpia , Klingsor , Don Alfonso and again, as already at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Sebastiano and Golaud. Every year in the run-up to Christmas he sang the broom-maker Peter in the fairy tale opera Hansel and Gretel in Nuremberg .

In addition to the heroic roles in Nuremberg, he also appeared in the cheerful parts of the Italian buffo operas, such as Don Pasquale , " Mamma Agata " and Gianni Schicchi . Giongo's other comedic roles were Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola , Geronimo in The Secret Marriage and Telemann'sche Pimpinone , with whom he had great success in Nuremberg. He also sang Stadinger in Der Waffenschmied (season 1984/85) in the German subject . Occasionally Giongo also took on operetta roles, u. a. Colonel Ollendorf in The Begging Student and Frank the Prison Director in Die Fledermaus .

As a permanent member of the Nuremberg ensemble, Giongo regularly interpreted many small and medium-sized roles, where he also “worked with great commitment”. These roles included a. Graf Lamoral in Arabella (premiere: December 1980; production: Hans Neugebauer , conductor: Hans Gierster), Mr. Gedge in Albert Herring (premiere: 1980/81 season, director: Uwe Kreyssig ), Baron Douphal in several La Traviata productions, Schaunard in La Bohème (most recently in June / July 1992), Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos (including in June 1986 in a gala performance with Janis Martin ) and, for almost 15 years without a break, the 2nd armor in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (director : Peter Beauvais ).

Commitment to the modern

During his career, Giongo also took on roles from the modern field. The music of the 20th century was of particular interest. During his engagement in Nuremberg, Giongo developed into a specialist for contemporary roles, in which he offered "unforgettable interpretations" as a singer-actor.

In the 1979/80 season he sang Nekrotzar in Le Grand Macabre at the Nuremberg Opera House ; in this role he also appeared with the Nuremberg Ensemble in November 1981 at the Steirischer Herbst in Graz . In the 1981/82 season he took on the title role in Lear (conductor: Wolfgang Gayler ) and, as a "cast that needs no comparison", designed the title role "differentiated", "verbatim down to the brittle stammering", "artistically mastering" the immense vocal demands. In the 1982/83 season, Giongo, at the side of Johanna-Lotte Fecht , was the shoemaker in Udo Zimmermann's opera The Wonderful Shoemaker's Wife , where he said "all suffering, all defiance, all despair, resignation, but also all goodness so undisguised, of course ( and at the same time expressively) shows that the interesting character facets of this figure were fully exhausted ”. In the 1983/84 season the title role followed in the Nuremberg premiere of the opera Baal by Friedrich Cerha . In the 1985/86 season Giongo was part of the cast of the Nuremberg production of Hans Werner Henze's opera The English Cat as Plunkett . In June 1987 he sang, alongside Gail Steiner , the pastor and father of the female main character Else in the world premiere of the opera Sturmnacht by Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz . In the 1990/91 season he was Leopold Bloom in Hans Zender's opera Stephen Climax .

Premiere roles 1985–1988 (selection)

Giongo's premiere roles in the 1985/86 season included a. Doctor Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro (Direction: Ernst Seiltgen ) and Maurizio in The Four Ruffians (Direction: Wolfgang Weber ). In the premiere of Die Macht des Schicksals (December 1985, director: Kurt Josef Schildknecht ), which was accompanied by violent tumults and heckling, Giongo gave Fra Melitone “unobtrusive comedy” and at the same time kept nerves by singing undeterred as “the public anger at Melitone's sermon awoke ".

In the 1986/87 season, Giongo took over Beckmesser in a new Meistersinger production by Heinz Lukas-Kindermann (musical direction: Gustav Kuhn , premiere: November 1986). With partners such as Bent Norup and Franz Ferdinand Nentwig (1929–2015) as Hans Sachs, he sang Beckmesser in all performances of this production until May 1989. In the 1987/88 season, the police commissioner followed as a further premiere role for Giongo in a new production of the Strauss opera Der Rosenkavalier (premiere: October 1987, musical direction: Christian Thielemann ), which he also played in all performances of this production a. a. played alongside June Card , Ursula Wendt-Walther , Csilla Zentai , Gwyneth Jones and Anna Tomowa-Sintow as Marschallin. In December 1987 he sang the tramp Harashta in a new production of Janáček's opera The Cunning Little Vixen . In the 1988/89 season, again under Christian Thielemann, the Morone cardinal legate followed in Palestina (premiere: October 1988; director: Hansjörg Utzerath ).

In addition, he sang in these years as "squatting" from March 1988 to November 1990 a. a. the Nabucco (premiere: 1987/88 season, premiere cast : Andreas Förster ) and the Kühleborn in Undine (including in May 1988, premiere cast : Bent Norup). In January and June 1990 he took over his former brilliant role in two performances, Telramund in Lohengrin , for Bent Norup, who was engaged abroad.

Late roles

Giongo's last opera premieres were Britten's Death in Venice , staged by John Dew (premiere: 1991/92 season, revival: 1992/93 season), in which he sang the seven bass-baritone roles identifiable as allegorical messengers of death, and The Thing the following year Makropulos (1992/93 season, director: John Dew), where he worked as a lawyer Dr. Kolenatý "contributed to the positive overall result".

Giongo's last roles at the Nuremberg Opera House included the manufacturer Oberholzer in a new production of Das Feuerwerk (premiere: 1990/91 season, last in July 1993), the 2nd armor in Die Zauberflöte (last in July 1993) and the role of Baron Mirko Zeta in the Lehár operetta The Merry Widow , in which he was on stage again from January 1993 to April / May 1994. In July 1994, Giongo retired at the end of the season.

Guest performances

In 1960 Giongo made a guest appearance at the Zurich Opera House with the roles of the four villains in Hoffmann's stories . He also made guest appearances in Berlin (1960) and Munich (both as Morone) and at the Vienna State Opera (November 1966, as Morone). He has also performed in Hamburg, at the Cologne Opera , at the Basel City Theater , at the Cairo Opera House and at French theaters. In 1967 he sang Gunther in the Ring cycle at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires alongside Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen . In this production, he was also intended as an understudy and cover for Wotan. From 1970 he appeared again on Italian stages, for example in the 1973/74 season in Florence .

Private

Giongo was married and after the end of his stage career lived largely withdrawn in Nuremberg-Erlenstegen . In his private life, he devoted himself to painting , often creating oil paintings with figurine motifs. His pictures have been presented several times in the foyer of the Nuremberg Opera House and shown at exhibitions. Giongo died shortly after his 91st birthday. The urn burial took place in October 2019 at the Nuremberg West Cemetery .

Audio documents

A “cross-section” from the opera Don Giovanni in which Giongo sings the title hero was released on record . His partners are Ingrid Bjoner (Donna Anna) and Josef Traxel (Don Ottavio). Fritz Zaun conducts it . There is also a live recording of Götterdämmerung from Buenos Aires under the musical direction of Ferdinand Leitner .

literature

  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Volume 3: Franc-Kaidanoff, pp. 1735/1736. Fourth, enlarged and updated edition. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11598-9 .
  • Karl Martyniak (Ed.): OPERAdat. Interpreter lexicon. Singer lexicon. Giacomini - Gnauck. Page 4. 2nd edition Düsseldorf 1998 (with list of roles).
  • W. Bronnenmeyer: The portrait: Fabio Giongo . Portrait. In: Opera world . Issue May 1982, pages 18-20.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Fabio Giongo . Obituary notice on Nordbayern.de from October 7, 2019; accessed on March 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j We introduce: Fabio Giongo. Bass baritone . In: Program and cast sheet for the musical comedy Fireworks ; Performance on January 4, 1980 ( Nuremberg Opera House , revival)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Fabio Giongo on "farewell" after 25 years . In: Ed .: Theater Nürnberg. Monthly July 1994.
  4. ↑ W.Bronnenmeyer: Nuremberg: jealousy. Busoni «Arlecchino» | Leoncavallo «The Bajazzo» . Performance review. In: Opera world . Issued June 1969. page 38.
  5. ↑ Le Grand Macabre . Archive Styrian Autumn. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  6. ↑ MUSIC THEATER NUREMBERG GUESTS WITH LIGETIS “LE GRAND MACABRE” . Performance review. In: Austrian music magazine . Volume 37. Issue 1st page 38/39. doi: 10.7767 / omz.1982.37.1.37 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  7. ↑ W.Bronnenmeyer: dismantling of a human. John Cox directed Aribert Reimann's “Lear” in Nuremberg . Performance review. In: Opera world . Edition February May 1982. Page 32/33 ..
  8. ↑ W.Bronnenmeyer: prosperity and dreams. Zimmermann's “The Wonderful Shoemaker's Woman” in Nuremberg . Performance review. In: Opera world . Issue May 1983. Pages 24/25.
  9. ↑ BAAL . Occupation. Official website of the opera singer Zachos Terzakis . Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  10. ^ W. Bronnenmeyer: Escape in pictures. Verdi's “Power of Fate” in Nuremberg . Performance review. In: Opera world . Issue February 1986. Pages 42/43.
  11. ↑ OPERNHAUS NUREMBERG 1987 . Cast list. Official website of the opera singer Zachos Terzakis . Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  12. ↑ Irene Tüngler: Knabenanmut, Knabenschwermut . Performance review. taz of May 2, 1992. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  13. ↑ G. Werlitz: NUREMBERG: THE MAKROPOULOS MATTER . Performance review. In: Opera glasses . Issue 7/8. July / August 1993. Pages 69/70.
  14. ↑ a b Wagner: Götterdämmerung . Occupation. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  15. ↑ Don Giovanni . Record cover at Bertelsmann. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Giongo, Fabio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (bass baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 13th September 2019
Place of death Nuremberg , Germany