Giovanni Malipiero
Giovanni Malipiero (20 April 1906 – 10 April 1970) was an operatic tenor who enjoyed a prominent career on stage and on radio in his native Italy during the 1930s and 1940s.
Career and recorded legacy
Malipiero was born in
. This performance marked the true start of his career as a leading artist.The fine quality of Malipiero's
In 1937, he made the first of what would prove to be many appearances at Italy's foremost opera house, the
Much admired in parts written by the
The political turmoil of the late 1930s, culminating in the outbreak of the six-year-long Second World War, restricted Malipiero's opportunities to establish an international career. He was said to have disliked overseas travel, too, although he did accept engagements to sing in South America. His schedule of performances wound down in the 1950s and he began to assume character parts from the middle of that decade onwards. He retired in 1962 after a final appearance at the
Malipiero possessed a clear, bright, well-trained voice with a slightly husky timbre. Italian music critics and audiences of the 1930-1960 period praised his singing style, regarding it as belonging to the elegant 'old school' of pre-verismo vocalism.
He can be heard as Edgardo in a complete recording of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, with the coloratura soprano Lina Pagliughi in the title role and Ugo Tansini conducting, that was made by Cetra Records at the height of the tenor's powers in 1939. This performance was remastered in 2001 and released on CD by Naxos Records. In 2009, the Preiser label issued a CD devoted to Malipiero. It contains a selection of arias, ranging in compositional date from the bel canto era through to the verismo period, that he recorded in Italy between 1937 and 1941.
Malipiero died 10 days short of his 64th birthday, in Padua.
Sources
- Grove Music Online, J.B. Steane, Oxford University Press, April 2008.
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