Albums by Carlo Bergonzi
ALBUMShakespeare in Music, Vol. 8Leonie Rysanek, Erich Leinsdorf, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Leonard Warren, William Olvis, Harold Sternberg, Emilia Cundari, Osie Hawkins, Jerome Hines, Mildred Allen & Carlo Bergonzi
ALBUMSimon Boccanegra (Recorded 1960)Frank Guarrera, Zinka Milanov, Giorgio Tozzi, Carlo Bergonzi, Ezio Flagello, Norman Scott, Robert Nagy, Marie Janger, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Dimitri Mitropoulos
ALBUMPuccini: Manon Lescaut (Live Recordings 1960)Floriana Cavalli, Coro Del Teatro Di San Carlo, Carlo Bergonzi, Biancarosa Zanibelli, Mariano Caruso, Antonio Cassinelli, Giuseppe Valdegno, Augusto Frati, Gabriele Santini & L'Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo
ALBUMShakespeare in Music, Vol. 9 (Recordings 1959)Emilia Cundari, Erich Leinsdorf, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Calvin Marsh, Mildred Allen, Carlo Bergonzi, William Olvis, Carlotta Ordassy, Gerhard Pechner, Leonie Rysanek & Leonard Warren
ALBUMVerdi: La Traviata - HighlightsDame Joan Sutherland, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, John Pritchard, Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill & Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
ALBUMVerdi: Macbeth - Complete Recording (Opera in 4 Acts, Rec. 1959)The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Leonie Rysanek, Carlotta Ordassy, Carlo Bergonzi, William Olvis, Gerhard Pechner, Harold Sternberg, Osie Hawkins, Calvin Marsh, Emila Cundari, Leonard Warren, Mildred Allen & Jerome Hines
Artist Biography
Although only a passable actor of average looks—his words—Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi had a graceful musical expression that made him the 20th century’s supreme interpreter of Verdi. Born the son of a cheesemaker near Parma in 1924, Bergonzi sang children’s operatic roles before studying voice as a baritone at the Conservatorio di Musica Arrigo Boito di Parma. He spent three years in a German concentration camp for anti-Nazi activities and, after returning home in 1945, made his baritone debut in 1948. Realizing he was better suited to tenor roles, Bergonzi retrained and made a second debut in 1951 at Bari’s Teatro Petruzzelli, singing the title role of Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. A master of long, supple lines, Bergonzi would eventually record every major Verdi role, as captured on the 1976 Philips compilation Verdi: 31 Tenor Arias. An international star, he sang more than 300 times with New York’s Metropolitan Opera until the ’80s, when he transitioned to the sort of recital work heard on 1988’s Vocal Recital. Bergonzi could frequently be found in his Busseto restaurant “I Due Foscari,” its name a nod to Verdi, until his death in 2014.
Hometown
Vidalenzo, Polisene Parmense, Italy
Genre
Classical