Giuseppe Valdengo
Giuseppe Valdengo (May 24, 1914, Turin – October 3, 2007, Aosta) was an Italian operatic baritone. Opera News said that, "Although his timbre lacked the innate beauty of some of his baritone contemporaries, Valdengo's performances were invariably satisfying — bold and assured in attack but scrupulously musical."[1]
Biography
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Valdengo first studied the cello and oboe before turning to vocal studies with Accoriti in his native Turin. He made his operatic debut as Figaro in
Valdengo made his American debut at the New York City Opera as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly in 1946. He remained on that company's roster through the spring 1948 season, singing the title role in Rigoletto, Tonio in Pagliacci, Escamillo in Carmen and Giorgio Germont in La traviata. He was also a regular performer at the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company between 1946–1948, singing Amonasro in Aida, the Count di Luna in Il trovatore, Rigoletto, and Valentin in Charles Gounod's Faust. In September 1947 he made his San Francisco Opera debut as Valentin.[1]
Valdengo first appearance at the
During the 1950s Valdengo sang in most of the principal European opera houses, most often portraying roles from the Verdi baritone repertory. Some of his notable engagements during the mid-1950s included appearances at
He also sang in other American houses. In 1953 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company as Iago in Verdi's Otello, returning there to sing Sharpless (1954), Valentin (1955, 1959), and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor (1959). He retired from the stage in 1966 and taught in Turin. After his retirement he still recorded some buffo roles in Italy: Don Pasquale, Dr Bartolo and Dulcamara (see the Abridged discography). A famous pupil of him is the baritone Alessandro Corbelli. Valdengo published his autobiography Ho cantato con Toscanini in 1962.
Valdengo may be best-remembered for his
Select Discography
- Verdi: Otello (Nelli, Vinay; Toscanini, 1947) RCA Victor
- Verdi: Aida (Nelli, Tucker; Toscanini, 1949; special re-takes in 1954) RCA Victor
- Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Steber, Madeira, Tucker; Rudolf, 1949) Columbia Records
- Verdi: Falstaff (Nelli; Toscanini, 1950) RCA Victor
- Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (Amara, Tucker; Cleva, 1951) Columbia
- Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Curtis-Verna, Tagliavini; Questa, 1954) Cetra
- Donizetti: Don Pasquale as Malatesta (Rizzoli; Molinari-Pradelli, 1955) Philips
- Puccini: La bohème (Albanese, Schuh, di Stefano, Treigle; Cellini, 1959) [live] VAI
- Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore as Dulcamara (Ciano, Tagliavini, Maffeo; Ino Savini,19/27 August 1968) Supraphon/Fratelli Fabbri
- Donizetti: Don Pasquale as Don Pasquale( Nino Verchi, 1968) Fratelli Fabbri
- Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia as Bartolo (Guglielmi, Cappuccilli; G. Zani, 1969) Supraphon/Fratelli Fabbri
- Italian Songs with Bonus Tracks from Operatic Recital by Giuseppe Valdengo (Universal Music Group, 2014) Decca Most Wanted Recitals
Videography
- Verdi: Aida (Nelli, Tucker; Toscanini, 1949) [live] RCA
- Puccini: La rondine (Carteri, Gismondo; Bellezza, Colosimo, 1958) [live] Hardy/VAI
References
- ^ a b c d e "Obituaries: Bass Andrew Foldi; baritones Frank Guarrera and Giuseppe Valdengo; Bayreuth's Gudrun Wagner; conductor Craig Smith; publicist Margaret Carson; manager Herbert Barrett; OPERA NEWS contributor Leslie Rubinstein". Opera News. Vol. 72, no. 8. February 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ^ "Metropolitan Opera Association".
Sources
- The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1987), ISBN 0-671-61732-X
- Opera News, Obituaries, February 2008.
External links
- Obituary (in Italian)
- Giuseppe Valdengo in an excerpt from Aïda on YouTube(1949).