- Rolando Panerai
Rolando Panerai (born on
October 17 ,1924 ) italian baritone,particularly associated with the Italian repertory, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career in both comic and dramatic roles.Biography
Rolando Panerai was born in Ciampi Bisenzio, near
Florence , Italy.He studied with Frazzi in Florence and Armani and Giulia Tess inMilan . Panerai made his debut as the pharaon in Rossini's "Mosè in Egitto " at theTeatro di San Carlo ofNaples in 1947. Other important debut were as "Simon Boccanegra " inBergamo and as Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly " atLa Scala in Milan both in 1951. He sang in many rarely performedVerdi opera such as "Giovanna d'Arco", "La Battaglia di Legnano", "Aroldo", on radio broadcast forRAI in 1951, to commemorate Verdi's 50th death anniversary. Later roles included the great Verdi baritone roles such as "Rigoletto ", di Luna in "Il Trovatore ", Germont in "La Traviata ", Amonasro in "Aida ". He also enjoyed considerable success in comic roles making a specialty of such roles as Figaro in "Nozze di Figaro ", Leporello in "Don Giovanni ", both Guglielmo and Alfonso in "Cosi fan tutte ", roles he often sang at both theAix-en-Provence andSalzburg festivals. He also excelled as Figaro in "Il barbiere di Siviglia ", as both Belcore and Dulcamara in "Elisir d'amore ", Malatesta and the title role in "Don Pasquale ".Panerai left an impressive discography, often partnering with
Maria Callas andGiuseppe di Stefano , as in "Il Trovatore", "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", "La Bohème". He also recorded a notable"Madama Butterfly", oppositeRenata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi,and "La Traviata", oppositeBeverly Sills andNicolai Gedda .Rolando Panerai has a dark and vibrant voice, and has enjoyed a remarkably long and distinguished career singing Germont as recently as the year 2000 in a French televised production of "La Traviata" next to
Jose Cura and Eteri Gvazava, his voice in very good shape for a man of 76.His voice and style of acting were highly appreciated by the great directors, who worked with him - Strehler, Zeffirelli, Visconti...Rolando Panerai has more than 150 operas in his repertory. His most well known operatic roles are: Falstaff, Rigoletto, The Count of Luna in „Il Trovatore”, Marquis of Posa in „Don Carlos”, Giorgio Germont in „La Traviata” - by Verdi. He has been also the greatest Gianni Schicchi in „Il Trittico” by Puccini for many years, and sang this role in Florence as recently as 2006, at the age of 84.In 2001 he played Germont if the televised version of Verdi's "La Traviata" conducted by Zubin Mehta, and broadcast to 125 countries,
Recently Rolando Panerai has sung at the Paris Opera, in the Staatsoper, Frankfurt and at the Glyndebourne Festival.
ources
* Alain Pâris, "Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle" (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
* D. Hamilton (ed.),"The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Opera" (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
* Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), "Guide de l’opéra", Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6
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