Ioannis Apostolou

Ioannis Apostolou

Ioannis Apostolou ( Greek Ιωάννης Αποστόλου , also called Yannis or Yangos Γιάγκος, Italian Giovanni Apostolu; * 1860 or 1863 in Athens ; † August 28, 1905 in Naples ) was a Greek opera singer ( tenor ). He was the first internationally successful opera singer in his country; his voice is documented on some of the earliest sound recordings.

Life

As a child he joined the choir of the royal palace chapel and later studied at the Athens Conservatory. Initially, he worked as secretary at the Athens District Court and the National Press Service. At the same time he sang in the streets of Athens. In the mid-1880s he was involved in several choirs, including at the music school of Napoleon Lambelet , under whose direction he made his debut in Xyndas' opera O ypopsifios (Ο υποψήφιος “The Candidate”) at the first Elliniko melodrama , the oldest Athens opera company. Soon afterwards he appeared in Lambelet's Komidyllio I mylonades (Οι μυλωνάδες "" The Millers ") and sang his first Italian role with the role of Daniel in Donizetti's opera Betly ossia La capanna svizzera .

Ioannis Apostolou

In the following years he expanded his repertoire to include other bel canto parts from operas by Pavlos Carrer and Donizetti as well as the Belmonte in Mozart's Abduction . With the second Elliniko melodrama he went on extensive tours, which took him through the Greek-speaking world of the time (including Alexandria, Cairo, Smyrna, Constantinople, several cities in Romania) but also to Marseille and Trieste. His voice made him extremely popular with the Greek communities before which the troupe appeared.

When the tour was canceled in Odessa in 1890, the Greek communities of Odessa and Bucharest financed his stay in Milan for further vocal studies. Spyros Samaras ' mother placed him there as a teacher, Felice Pozzi , who taught him singing, acting and the Italian language for six months and finally gave him his debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice , where he played Alvaro in Verdi's La forza del destino , which started an extraordinary career as a spinto tenor in Italy, primarily in the roles of Verdi and Puccini , but also in the French subject (Werther , Faust , Carmen) and as Lohengrin . Foreign engagements have taken him to theaters in Odessa, Monte Carlo and Paris, and rarely to his hometown Athens. His fame in Italy gave him the nickname Il divo Apostolu ( "the divine Apostolou"), he was, among others, by the award of a medal by King Humbert I. honored. Little is known about his private life and the circumstances surrounding his death.

literature

• Takis Kalogeropoulos: Ioannis Apostolou , in: Lexiko tis Ellinikis mousikis , Athens 1998–99 ( online at wiki.musicportal.gr)

Web links

• Portrait of Juan Dzazópulos on www.grandi-tenori.com (engl.)
• Giovanni Apostolu (tenor) (Athens 1860 - Naples 1905)
• Literature by and about Ioannis Apostolou in the bibliographic database WorldCat