Ezio Pinza
Ezio Pinza | |
---|---|
Born | Ezio Fortunato Pinza May 18, 1892 |
Died | May 9, 1957 Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. | (aged 64)
Education | Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1914–1956 |
Ezio Fortunato Pinza (May 18, 1892 – May 9, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. At the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.
After retiring from the Metropolitan Opera in 1948, Pinza enjoyed a fresh career on
Biography
Early years
Ezio Fortunato Pinza[1] was born in modest circumstances in Rome in 1892. The seventh child born to his parents, he was the first to live past infancy.[2] Pinza grew up on Italy's east coast, in the ancient city of Ravenna. He studied singing at Bologna's Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini, making his operatic debut at age 22 in 1914, as Oroveso in Norma at Cremona.
As a young man, Pinza was a devotee of bicycle racing. "Although I did not know it at the time," he told an interviewer years later, "I was developing the lung power which now makes people hear my voice even in the top row of the peanut gallery."[2] He also undertook four years of military service during World War I, prior to resuming his operatic career in Rome in 1919. He was then invited to sing at Italy's foremost opera house, La Scala, Milan, making his début there in February 1922. At La Scala, under the direction of the brilliant and exacting principal conductor Arturo Toscanini, Pinza's career blossomed during the course of the next few seasons. He became a popular favourite of critics and audiences due to the high quality of his singing and the attractiveness of his stage presence.
Although he attended the Bologna Conservatory, Pinza never learned to read music; he learned all his music by ear.[3] He would listen to his part played on the piano and then sing it accurately. Pinza succeeded the great Italian basses Francesco Navarini and Vittorio Arimondi, both of whom enjoyed international opera careers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Nazzareno De Angelis, who arrived on the scene in the early 1900s. Another of his eminent predecessors in the Italian operatic repertoire was the Spaniard José Mardones, who had appeared regularly with the Boston and Metropolitan opera companies between 1909 and 1926. Tancredi Pasero, whose vibrant voice sounded remarkably similar to Pinza's, was his chief contemporary rival among Italian-born basses. Pasero, however, lacked Pinza's handsome looks and magnetic personality. [citation needed]
Operatic success
Pinza's Metropolitan Opera debut occurred in November 1926 in
Pinza sang once again under the baton of Toscanini in 1935, this time with the
Pinza resigned from the Metropolitan Opera in 1948. He had sung opposite many celebrated singers at the Met during his heyday, including, among others, such international stars as Amelita Galli-Curci, Rosa Ponselle, Elisabeth Rethberg, Maria Jeritza, Giovanni Martinelli, Beniamino Gigli, Lawrence Tibbett, and Giuseppe De Luca. The Metropolitan Opera honored Pinza by dedicating all the water fountains at the new Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) to him.[6] Before his retirement from opera, his repertoire consisted of around 95 roles.
Arrest and detention by FBI
In March 1942, the
Later years and death
After his Met farewell, Pinza embarked on a second career in Broadway
Pinza became a member of
Pinza's health began to decline during the mid-1950s; a series of heart attacks precipitated a stroke on May 1, 1957. Pinza died in his sleep of a heart attack on May 9, at the age of 64 in
Personal life
Pinza was married twice. With his first wife, Augusta Cassinelli, he had a daughter, Claudia Pinza Bozzolla, who became a celebrated opera singer, vocal coach, and director herself.[11] After divorcing Cassinelli, in 1940 he married Doris Leak, described in The New York Times as "a member of the Metropolitan Opera's corps de ballet." They had three children: Clelia, Pietro, and Gloria.[2] Clelia's daughter, journalist Sarah Goodyear, wrote about her father's wartime struggles in The Village Voice in 2000.[7]
Films and television
Pinza appeared in several films, beginning with 1947's Carnegie Hall, which featured a number of famous classical singers, musicians, conductors, and the
Pinza hosted
Recordings
Pinza recorded extensively for
Pinza was still making operatic recordings in the 1950s, although his voice was now in obvious decline. In the mid-1940s, he had recorded for Columbia Records. He occasionally recorded popular songs, and was featured on Columbia's best-selling original cast recording of South Pacific with Mary Martin. Pinza returned to RCA Victor in the early 1950s and recorded several operatic arias and popular songs. Pinza can also be heard on the RCA Victor original cast album of Fanny, recorded in 1954.[13]
References
- ^ J. F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 133.
- ^ a b c "Pinza, 'Met' and Stage Star, Dies". The New York Times. May 9, 1957. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
- ^ "Ezio Pinza - The Official Masterworks Broadway Site". Retrieved 21 July 2018.
- ^ "Toscanini Discography". www.toscaninionline.com. p. 5. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
- ^ "Obituaries: Claudia Pinza Bozzolla". Opera News. November 2017.
- ISBN 0-07-059527-5.
You approach the vast inner sanctum [of the new Met]...maybe pausing for a drink of cool water from one of the inlaid marble fountains 'In Memory of Ezio Pinza'.
- ^ a b Goodyear, Sarah (April 11, 2000). "When Being Italian was a Crime". The Village Voice. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
- ^ Jacobs, AD. "Legislation on internment". www.foitimes.com. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
- ^ Grand Opera: The Story of the Met, Charles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron, 2014, University of California Press. pp. 161–162.[ISBN missing]
- ^ "Singer Ezio Pinza Dies in His Sleep". The Victoria Advocate. 1957-05-10. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
- ^ Riccardo Schulz. "Claudia Pinza Obituary". pittsburghopera.org. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
- ^ IMDB website
- ^ RCA Victor and Sony websites
- The Grand Tradition by John Steane, Duckworth, London, 1974.
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (second edition), edited by Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, Oxford University Press, London, 1980.
- Liner notes from Ezio Pinza: Bass Arias, Pearl CD, GEM 0061, issued in 1999; and from Ezio Pinza: Opera Arias, EMI CD, CDH 7 64253 2, issued in 1992.