Mario Sereni

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Mario Sereni (born March 25, 1928 in Perugia , Umbria , Italy ; † July 15, 2015 ibid) was an Italian opera singer ( baritone ) who worked at the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera houses in the world from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s occurred.

Life

Mario Sereni first learned the trade of a mechanic before studying at the Conservatory in Perugia, then at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena as a student of Mario Basiola . He made his debut in 1953 at the Maggio Musicale in Florence in Adriano Lualdi's Il diavolo nel campanile . In 1955 he sang Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser von Wagner at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. In 1956 he was a guest at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and on November 9, 1957 he made his Met debut as Gérard in Andrea Chénier .

At the Met he sang all of Giuseppe Verdi's great baritone roles such as Ernani , Luisa Miller , Il trovatore , La traviata , Un ballo in maschera , La forza del destino , Rigoletto , Don Carlos and Aida as well as in La in 380 performances in 26 parts Gioconda , Cavalleria rusticana , Manon Lescaut , La Bohème , Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini and L'elisir d'amore and Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti . In 1963 he sang for the first time at La Scala in Milan and in 1965 at the Vienna State Opera .

Sereni was a regular guest at the opera houses of Chicago , San Francisco and Dallas as well as the Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Covent Garden Opera in London and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires . In February 1988 he was a guest at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB) as Belcore in a performance of Donizetti's opera L'elisir d'amore , in which Luciano Pavarotti sang the role of Nemorino for the first time in Berlin. In March 1988 he sang Belcore at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo , also with Pavarotti as a partner.

Sereni sang roles by 19th century composers such as Rossini , Donizetti and Verdi; he also sang roles by Puccini, Mascagni , Leoncavallo and Giordano . From non-Italian composers he had a preference for Gounod and, if somewhat less, for Bizet . In German he sang the role of Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser von Wagner.

Despite its great success, Sereni always remained somewhat in the shadow of other baritones of his time such as Leonard Warren , Robert Merrill , Ettore Bastianini , Rolando Panerai , Piero Cappuccilli or Sherrill Milnes . Mario Sereni was married to Elsa Weisz and had four children: Mario 1957, Rodrigo 1960, Lucas 1960 and Marina 1967. He died in 2015 in his native Perugia.

Discography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norman Lebrecht: Venerable Met baritone has died. In: slippedisc.com. July 24, 2015, accessed July 25, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Sereni, Mario
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Perugia , Umbria , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 15th July 2015
Place of death Perugia , Umbria , Italy