Piero de Palma

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Piero de Palma , (born August 31, 1925 in Molfetta , Apulia , according to other sources in Genoa , † April 5, 2013 in Milan ) was an Italian opera singer with a tenor voice .

Life

Origin and early years

De Palma was probably born in 1925; Occasionally other years of birth were also mentioned in reference works and song dictionaries, for example 1916 or 1923. The information on the place of birth is inconsistent; Genoa is sometimes given as the place of birth.

De Palma's career as an opera singer began as a chorus singer in the early 1940s . Probably in 1945 he made his debut as a soloist in a semi-professional performance at the Teatro Grattacielo in Genoa; he sang Beppo in I Pagliacci . Since 1948 he was heard as a radio singer with the RAI ; until the beginning of the 1950s he was mainly involved in radio broadcasts.

Guest performances in Italy

Since 1952 he has appeared regularly on various opera stages across Italy. In 1952 he made his debut at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples , where he performed regularly until 1980. There he participated in several world premieres and first performances: in March 1954 in the world premiere of the opera I Pescatori by Jacopo Napoli , in 1954 in the Italian premiere of the opera Neues vom Tage , also in 1954 in the Italian premiere of the opera The Trial and in 1958 in the world premiere the opera Il Vortice by Renzo Rossellini . In 1952 he made his first guest appearance at the Rome Opera House.

In 1952 he appeared for the first time at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence . He made his debut there as Rodolfo in Guglielmo Tell and then appeared regularly there until 1957: in 1953 in the Italian premiere of the opera War and Peace , in 1954 in the Italian premiere of the opera Mazeppa , in 1955 in Otello (as Cassio) and in 1957 in L'Orfeo . In later years he sang Minister Pong in Turandot in 1971 and Aufide in Mosè in 1973 .

He sang at the Teatro Comunale di Firenze for the first time in 1955, and later again in the 1982/1983 season. In 1955 he also made his debut at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna ; there he later sang the role of Prunier in La rondine in 1971 .

In 1958 he made his debut at La Scala in Milan . His first role there was Minister Pong. This role was considered De Palma's brilliant role; he has sung this role over 200 times in total during his career. There he was also part of the cast of several world premieres and Italian premieres: Les Troyens (1960), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1961) and From a House of the Dead (1966). De Palma almost exclusively sang medium, smaller, and often the smallest roles at La Scala. He was considered the leading Comprimario tenor of the post-war period and of his generation. He was called “comprimario di lusso” because of his beautiful voice and perfect diction. De Palma was called "il primo secondo tenore del mondo" in his time. In his roles, De Palma always proved to be an "excellent performer". In April 1968 he sang at La Scala in Milan in the revivals of Turandot (as Minister Pong) and Un ballo in maschera (as Un giudice / judge).

His repertoire included: Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro , Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte , Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor , Spalanzani in Hoffmann's Stories , Gastone in La traviata , Borsa in Rigoletto , Bote (Messagero) in Aida , Incroyable in Andrea Chénier , Gottesnarr in Boris Godunow , Triquet in Eugen Onegin , Wenzel in Die Bartered Bride , Spoletta in Tosca , Goro in Madama Butterfly , Cassio in Otello (Verdi) and Dr. Cajus in Falstaff . In total, his repertoire included over 200 roles.

In the 1970s he sang regularly in Italy at the Teatro Massimo Palermo , the Teatro Bellini in Catania , the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste , the Teatro Regio di Torino and the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo .

He appeared at the opera festival in the Caracalla Thermen (1956, as Cassio; 1985, as Pong) and at the festival in the Arena di Verona . In Verona he sang the roles of Normanno (1961), Remendado in Carmen (1970; later again in 1990), Malcolm in Macbeth (1971) and Pong in Turandot (1986; 1988).

Guest performances in Europe and overseas

In October 1963 he appeared for the first time at the Vienna State Opera ; there he made his debut as Cassio in Otello . In September 1981 he appeared there again as Incroyable in the opera Andrea Chenier . He sang at the Monte Carlo Opera House (1978 as Abbé in Adriana Lecouvreur ), at the Rouen Opera House (1978), at the Bordeaux Opera House (1978, 1980 as Dr. Cajus; 1982 as Abbé in Adriana Lecouvreur ), at the Grand Théâtre de Genève ( 1986; as Dr. Cajus in Falstaff ), at the Bonn Opera (1985 and 1990; as Pong) and at the Helsinki Opera House (1991; as Pong).

Until 1993 he was heard regularly at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona : as Nick in La Fanciulla del West , as Spoletta in Tosca , as Mastro Trabuco in La forza del destino , as Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette (February 1985), as Tinca and Gherardo in Iltrittico (November 1987), as Rustighello in Lucrezia Borgia (June 1989) and as the Jewish wine merchant Isacco in La gazza ladra (January 1993). In December 1989 he sang Abate di Chazeuil in Adriana Lecouvreur in his 100th performance at the Liceu , for which he received several calls of Bravo.

He also sang at the Bregenz Festival (1980), at the Macerata Opera Festival (1985, as Pong) and at the Salzburg Festival (1981/1982 as Dr. Cajus under Herbert von Karajan ), at the Salzburg Easter Festival (1988/1989; as Spoletta). In April / May 1985 he sang the waiter Nick in the opera La fanciulla del West at the Deutsche Oper Berlin . In June 1989 he sang the role of Rustighello at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in a concert performance of the opera Lucrezia Borgia with Joan Sutherland and Alfredo Kraus in the leading roles.

From 1973 to 1983 he sang regularly at the Dallas Opera House ; there he sang Spalanzani, Guillot de Morfontaine in Manon , Laerte in Mignon and Edmond in Manon Lescaut . He has also made guest appearances in the United States at the Philadelphia Opera House (1991/92 season as Spoletta) and the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1992).

In the 1992/93 season he made his late debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City ; in September / October 1992 he sang the role of Dr. Cajus in Falstaff .

death

De Palma died on April 5, 2013 after a long illness. He was buried on the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan .

Audio documents

De Palma recorded many of his Comprimario roles for the record . The number of his recordings is extremely high. The number of his recordings is put at over 150 recordings (studio recordings and live recordings).

Sometimes he played his roles several times in different recordings and with different conductors. He sang the role of Spoletta in a total of five different Tosca recordings. 1962 at Decca with Herbert von Karajan (conductor) and Leontyne Price (title role), 1966 again at Decca with Lorin Maazel (conductor) and Birgit Nilsson (title role), in 1976 at Philips with Colin Davis (conductor) and Montserrat Caballé (title role), 1984 again with Decca with Sir Georg Solti and Kiri Te Kanawa (title role) and for the last time in 1992 again with Philips with Riccardo Muti (conductor) and Carol Vaness (title role).

He sang the role of Goro in Madama Butterfly in three complete recordings: 1959 on the EMI label with Gabriele Santini (conductor), Victoria de los Angeles (Cio-Cio-San) and Jussi Björling (Pinkerton), in 1962 on the RCA label with Erich Leinsdorf , Leontyne Price (Cio-Cio-San), Richard Tucker (Pinkerton) and again in 1966 with the EMI label John Barbirolli (conductor), Renata Scotto (Cio-Cio-San) and Carlo Bergonzi (Pinkerton).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d E 'morto Piero De Palma, “Principe dei comprimari” obituary at OperaClick ; Retrieved April 23, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c "den im Schatten ..." Piero di Palma Tamino Klassikforum ; accessed on December 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ Karl J. Kutsch and Leo Riemens: Large singer lexicon . Fourth, expanded edition. Munich 2003. Volume 2: Castori – Frampoli, pp. 1110/1111. ISBN 3-598-11419-2 .
  4. ↑ List of roles by Piero De Palma in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945-2005 , p. 645. Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-85409-449-3
  5. ↑ J.-M. Wienecke: BARCELONA: ADRIANA LECOUVREUR . Performance review. In: The opera glasses . Issue January 1990. Page 4/5.
  6. ↑ Dr. Cajus [De Palma, Piero ] (Archives of the Metropolitan Opera; accessed April 23, 2013)
  7. ↑ Tosca (directory of the complete recordings)
  8. ↑ Madame Butterfly (list of the complete recordings)
personal data
SURNAME De Palma, Piero
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Molfetta
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 2013
Place of death Milan