Cesare Siepi
Cesare Siepi (born February 10, 1923 in Milan , † July 5, 2010 in Atlanta , Georgia ) was an Italian opera singer ( bassist ), who is considered one of the most famous interpreters of Don Giovanni .
Life
Siepi trained as a self-taught teacher and at the Milan Conservatory and made his modest debut in Schio in 1941 as Sparafucile in Rigoletto . In order not to serve in the Mussolini troops, he fled to Switzerland in the same year . In 1945 he appeared as Zaccaria in Nabucco at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice . From 1946 he was in demand as a stage and studio interpreter (especially as a Mozart singer) both because of his powerful, masculine, sonorous and flexible voice as well as his good looks. His focus was on the bass parts of the Italian subject, but he was also heard in selected roles in the bass-baritone area.
In 1948 Siepi was invited by Arturo Toscanini to La Scala in Milan to take part in the memorial concert for Arrigo Boito . From 1950 on he appeared in twenty-two seasons (until 1972) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he made his debut as Philipp in Don Carlo . At the Salzburg Festival he appeared as an opera and concert singer. Siepi also worked at the Vienna State Opera , z. B. 1967 as Don Giovanni under Josef Krips or 1974 as Padre Guardian in Giuseppe Verdi's La forza del destino under Riccardo Muti . Siepi was also repeatedly seen at La Scala in Milan. It was not until the late 1980s that he gradually ended his career. In 1985 he performed in Lugano in a concert with the soprano Mirella Freni , where they performed the duet Là ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni . In 1989 a concert took place at the Teatro Carani in Sassuolo , which is sometimes referred to as a farewell concert. The actual farewell concert, however, took place in the Austria Center in Vienna in 1994 (concert performance by Bellini's Norma ).
Siepi became famous as one of the outstanding interpreters of the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni , which he presented at many important theaters around the world. In 1953 he appeared at the Salzburg Festival in the Felsenreitschule under the direction of Wilhelm Furtwängler in this opera, thus starting his world career associated with the title role.
In addition to Don Giovanni and the aforementioned roles, Siepi sang, among others, Figaro from Le nozze di Figaro , Boris Godunow , Gurnemanz in Parsifal , Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula and Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod's opera Faust . He was signed to Broadway for the musical Bravo, Giovanni .
Siepi left behind a wealth of recordings, including five Don Giovanni. He reached high points in the recording of the Salzburg performance conducted by Furtwängler in 1953 or in 1955 with Josef Krips and the Vienna Philharmonic. This version was also widely praised, although it differed significantly from Furtwängler's heavy-blooded and extremely slowed-down interpretation. Another highlight of his discography is the 1955 recording of Le nozze di Figaro with the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Erich Kleiber .
repertoire
| role | Opera | composer |
|---|---|---|
| Conte Rodolfo | La sonnambula | Bellini |
| Oroveso | Norma | Bellini |
| Sir Giorgio | I Puritani | Bellini |
| Mefistofele | Mefistofele | Boito |
| Enrico VIII | Anna Bolena | Donizetti |
| Raimondo Bidebent | Lucia di Lammermoor | Donizetti |
| Marin Faliero | Marin Faliero | Donizetti |
| Baldassarre | La Favorita | Donizetti |
| Mefistofele | fist | Gounod |
| Le Cardinal de Brogni | La Juive | Halevy |
| Giulio Cesare | Giulio Cesare in Egitto | Handel |
| Archibaldo | L'amore dei tre re | Montemezzi |
| Figaro | Le nozze di Figaro | Mozart |
| Don Giovanni Leporello |
Don Giovanni | Mozart |
| Sarastro | The Magic Flute | Mozart |
| Boris Godunov | Boris Godunov | Mussorgsky |
| Dosifei | Khovanshchina | Mussorgsky |
| Alvise Badoero | La Gioconda | Ponchielli |
| Colline | La bohème | Puccini |
| Don Basilio | The Barber of Seville | Rossini |
| Cunt | Cunt | Rossini |
| Il vecchio ebreo | Samson et Dalila | Saint-Saëns |
| Lothario | Mignon | Thomas |
| Zaccaria | Nabucco | Verdi |
| Don Ruy Gomez de Silva | Ernani | Verdi |
| Attila | Attila | Verdi |
| Roger | Jerusalem | Verdi |
| Sparafucile | Rigoletto | Verdi |
| Giovanni da Procida | I vespri siciliani | Verdi |
| Jacopo Fiesco | Simon Boccanegra | Verdi |
| Padre Guardiano | La forza del destino | Verdi |
| Filippo II Grande Inquisitore |
Don Carlo | Verdi |
| Ramfis | Aida (opera) | Verdi |
| Pistola | Falstaff | Verdi |
| Pogner | The Mastersingers of Nuremberg | wagner |
| Gurnemanz | Parsifal | wagner |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Singer Cesare Siepi has died
- ^ Program booklet of the Vienna State Opera from February 2, 1965.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Siepi, Cesare |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian opera singer (bass) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milan |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th July 2010 |
| Place of death | Atlanta , Georgia |