dead Giuseppe Di Stefano

[Death Watch Beatle 41]

Here's somebody else to keep a watch on. I personally haven't heard of him, but I am sure the more cultured of you out there have - he got this large write-up on the BBC.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4075979.stm

 

DWB

[VSBfromH 74]

 

Yes, DWB, he would definitely pass the famousness test. A very long and distinguished career and many recordings of his work. Sang quite a few times with Maria Callas. Personally, I would like to wish this great man a speedy recovery. Any 83yo defending his wife against unknown assailants in Kenya and surviving deserves to do so!

[Guest Raff Martino]

 

I am an opera fan of some 31 years' standing...

 

 

I am 37 years old, which, for the mathematically minded amongst you will know when I started being an opera fan.

 

It was this gentleman, whose album of Neapolitan songs, recorded in the 1960s, (the sme period as THE BEATLES), who got me hooked on to opera at such a tender age. I had been playing outside in the late summer sunshine of August Bank Holiday 1973 (at the age of 6) when I retired inside for a cool drink. When I went inside, it was Giuseppe Di Stefano singing away through a series of Neapolitan Songs on the beaten up old gramophone my Dad had since about 1959. I was immediately taken by that marvellous wall of warm, rich, elegant sound that came out of the speakers. I've still got that ancient LP to this day.

 

It was such a beautiful, clear, passionate, warm with the heat of the Sicilian sun sound that I decided on the spur of that moment to become an opera fan.

 

Since then, of course, I have become acquainted with the greatest performers who sang with him s colleagues and rivals through the best years of his singing career.

 

Giuseppe Di Stefano became an opera singer almost by chance, as a result of winning a game of cards with a neighbourhood friend in his home just outside Milan, in 1936. His friend, struck with the sound of his voice, suggested that the young "Pippo" (Di Stefano's nickname) should study voice at a professional level.

Giuseppe Di Stefano took his friend's advice and with the guidance of two recently retired opera singers, including the celebrated baritone Luigi Montesanto, undertook voice training. Before he cvould make meaningful headway in his vocal studies, Giuseppe Di Stefano was drafted into the Italian army to fight on the Russian borders. The captain of his garrison recognised that Pippo's talents lay elsewhere other than a military career, and signed him unfit for army duty (on grounnds that the private had asthma; a condition Giuseppe had had since childhood and still had later on in his singing career).

 

Most of the garrison Di Stefano was posted to was wiped out both by the Russian army and by the cruelly cold conditions during 1940-1; this included the captain, who had released the young man from the army.

 

Giuseppe Di Stefano was on his own and in dire straits in Switerland; photographs of him in the period 1941-3 show him as a gaunt, underfed young man. He was fortunate in that his singing talent was noticed by several people, not least a Russian Countess and a pianist who was to become instrumental in his early international career. He made his living by singing all kinds of things from operatic arias to some of he big band hits of the period, under the name Nino Florio.

 

After the end of WW II, Giuseppe Di Stefano was released to resume his vocal studies with Luigi Montesanto. In 1946, he made his operatic debut as Des Grieux in Massenet's opera, Manon. In the next 18 months, he had made triumphant debuts at Milan's La Scala, the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan OPera House in New York. Between the years 1946 to 1952, he sang lighter roles, such as in La Boheme, Falstaff, Manon, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Sivigilia, and Mignon, also he performed the role of Lensky in Tchaikovsky's romantic tragic opera, Eugene Onegin; from 1953, he ventured into "heavier roles", operas which needed a different style of singing, which needed more power to the voice. Between 1953 and 1965, he achieved great success in operas such as Un Ballo in Maschera, La Forza del Destino, Aida, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Carmen, then later still, as heroic roles as Andrea Chenier, Calaf in Turandot and Verdi's great Otello.

 

His singing was noted for several aspects of greatness; his feeling for the words, rather than just following the musical notes, his understanding of his characters' position in relation to the other characters in the opera; also he had crystal clear diction; whichj made his characters appear more virile to the ear. He was noted also for being more true to the composer's /librettists intentions; something that the likes of Placido Domingo, who sang with Di Stefano on several occasions between 1959-1964 was to follow on. He sang with a warmth and an empathy for the words and the intentions of the composer which I have not found in any other singer.

From the mid 1960s, he began to suffer serious vocal problems; people put this down to his performing roles too punishing for his type of singing, but Giuseppe Di Stefano, in recent interviews and biographies, state that he was a victim of allergies caused by certain synthetic fibres.

 

The career of Giuseppe Di Stefano is impossible to completely assess without the mention of the name of Maria Callas. It is said that he achieved operatic stardom through association with Callas, but he had already been a star before their first collaboration, in Mexico City, 1951; it was he who led Maria out to the footlights of the stage of La Scala after their first Tosca together in May, 1953, and she became the darling of the Scala Tifosi. After a rather acrimonious split in 1958, after many memorable performances on stage together, and many legendary recordings for EMI between 1952 to 1958, Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, La TRaviata, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera. La Boheme and Manon Lescaut. They appeared together in a series of concerts around the world (proving THE THREE TENORS idea really wasn't that new) between 1973-74. Although neither singer was anything like as good as previously,they still managed a successful tour, although Montserrat Caballe replaced Callas in the last three concerts.

 

Pippo continued to perform (in Operetta and occasional opera, with new wife Monica Curth (with whom he had been at his villa when they were assaulted) until 1988, then he appeared in concerts until 1995. He made one last operatic appearance, as the aged Emporer Altoum in Turandot at the Caracalla (the site of the original THREE TENORS' CONCERT) in July 1992.

 

On a personal note, I would like to thank the Maestro for the innumerable hours, days, weeks of enjoyment he has given me throughout the last three decades; sometimes, I have been trhrough some really desperate times. His recodings have literally got me through most ordeals.

 

God Bless, Sr Di Stefano, and your wife Monica.

 

Raff Martino

[Teddy 21]

For one moment there, I thought I had hit the Wiki link. Then realised, he's not even on the list...

 

Thanks for the detail, but as someone once said, too much information... Just glad the font and the colour didn't work out. Can you imagine all of that in red!!!

[Guest Daryl Arambhan]

First of all, I am very pleased to hear that the tenor (par excellence) has come around after that ghastly attack.

I have been training professionally as a tenor for the past four years and heard of Pippo (Maestro's pet name) from my singing instructor. It was only last year that I discovered the warmth, tenderness, passion and of course tremendous talent in a voice that has touched me like no other. I now have recordings of complete operas of this legendary tenor.

Yes, it may be true that he caused his voice considerable harm due to open passagio singing but on the other hand the excitement in his singing is second to none.

I recommend the live recording of La Traviata (1955) with Callas, Lucia Di Lammermoor(1953) with Callas, Tosca(1953) again with Callas and any first time listener will be completely taken in...

[James 1]

Can I just make a point that open passagio singing is not dangerous if done correctly? Take Pavarotti for example. A true legend at opening on that most magical of all notes, the gateway to heaven F#.

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Can I just make a point that open passagio singing is not dangerous if done correctly?

You just did. I have no idea what you're talking about, but don't let that distract you.

 

BTW: welcome to DeathList forum, where we love the choir invisible.

 

regards,

Hein

[Guest Guest_Cheri_*]

Thank you so much for the info! I am listening to Tosca at this moment on XM . Such a wonderful representation of Maria Callas and di Stefano at their best! I was just wondering what his condition is at this point. Does anyone know if he remains in a coma?

 

 

 

 

 

I am an opera fan of some 31 years' standing...

 

 

I am 37 years old, which, for the mathematically minded amongst you will know when I started being an opera fan.

 

It was this gentleman, whose album of Neapolitan songs, recorded in the 1960s, (the sme period as THE BEATLES), who got me hooked on to opera at such a tender age. I had been playing outside in the late summer sunshine of August Bank Holiday 1973 (at the age of 6) when I retired inside for a cool drink. When I went inside, it was Giuseppe Di Stefano singing away through a series of Neapolitan Songs on the beaten up old gramophone my Dad had since about 1959. I was immediately taken by that marvellous wall of warm, rich, elegant sound that came out of the speakers. I've still got that ancient LP to this day.

 

It was such a beautiful, clear, passionate, warm with the heat of the Sicilian sun sound that I decided on the spur of that moment to become an opera fan.

 

Since then, of course, I have become acquainted with the greatest performers who sang with him s colleagues and rivals through the best years of his singing career.

 

Giuseppe Di Stefano became an opera singer almost by chance, as a result of winning a game of cards with a neighbourhood friend in his home just outside Milan, in 1936. His friend, struck with the sound of his voice, suggested that the young "Pippo" (Di Stefano's nickname) should study voice at a professional level.

Giuseppe Di Stefano took his friend's advice and with the guidance of two recently retired opera singers, including the celebrated baritone Luigi Montesanto, undertook voice training. Before he cvould make meaningful headway in his vocal studies, Giuseppe Di Stefano was drafted into the Italian army to fight on the Russian borders. The captain of his garrison recognised that Pippo's talents lay elsewhere other than a military career, and signed him unfit for army duty (on grounnds that the private had asthma; a condition Giuseppe had had since childhood and still had later on in his singing career).

 

Most of the garrison Di Stefano was posted to was wiped out both by the Russian army and by the cruelly cold conditions during 1940-1; this included the captain, who had released the young man from the army.

 

Giuseppe Di Stefano was on his own and in dire straits in Switerland; photographs of him in the period 1941-3 show him as a gaunt, underfed young man. He was fortunate in that his singing talent was noticed by several people, not least a Russian Countess and a pianist who was to become instrumental in his early international career. He made his living by singing all kinds of things from operatic arias to some of he big band hits of the period, under the name Nino Florio.

 

After the end of WW II, Giuseppe Di Stefano was released to resume his vocal studies with Luigi Montesanto. In 1946, he made his operatic debut as Des Grieux in Massenet's opera, Manon. In the next 18 months, he had made triumphant debuts at Milan's La Scala, the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan OPera House in New York. Between the years 1946 to 1952, he sang lighter roles, such as in La Boheme, Falstaff, Manon, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Sivigilia, and Mignon, also he performed the role of Lensky in Tchaikovsky's romantic tragic opera, Eugene Onegin; from 1953, he ventured into "heavier roles", operas which needed a different style of singing, which needed more power to the voice. Between 1953 and 1965, he achieved great success in operas such as Un Ballo in Maschera, La Forza del Destino, Aida, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Carmen, then later still, as heroic roles as Andrea Chenier, Calaf in Turandot and Verdi's great Otello.

 

His singing was noted for several aspects of greatness; his feeling for the words, rather than just following the musical notes, his understanding of his characters' position in relation to the other characters in the opera; also he had crystal clear diction; whichj made his characters appear more virile to the ear. He was noted also for being more true to the composer's /librettists intentions; something that the likes of Placido Domingo, who sang with Di Stefano on several occasions between 1959-1964 was to follow on. He sang with a warmth and an empathy for the words and the intentions of the composer which I have not found in any other singer.

From the mid 1960s, he began to suffer serious vocal problems; people put this down to his performing roles too punishing for his type of singing, but Giuseppe Di Stefano, in recent interviews and biographies, state that he was a victim of allergies caused by certain synthetic fibres.

 

The career of Giuseppe Di Stefano is impossible to completely assess without the mention of the name of Maria Callas. It is said that he achieved operatic stardom through association with Callas, but he had already been a star before their first collaboration, in Mexico City, 1951; it was he who led Maria out to the footlights of the stage of La Scala after their first Tosca together in May, 1953, and she became the darling of the Scala Tifosi. After a rather acrimonious split in 1958, after many memorable performances on stage together, and many legendary recordings for EMI between 1952 to 1958, Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, La TRaviata, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera. La Boheme and Manon Lescaut. They appeared together in a series of concerts around the world (proving THE THREE TENORS idea really wasn't that new) between 1973-74. Although neither singer was anything like as good as previously,they still managed a successful tour, although Montserrat Caballe replaced Callas in the last three concerts.

 

Pippo continued to perform (in Operetta and occasional opera, with new wife Monica Curth (with whom he had been at his villa when they were assaulted) until 1988, then he appeared in concerts until 1995. He made one last operatic appearance, as the aged Emporer Altoum in Turandot at the Caracalla (the site of the original THREE TENORS' CONCERT) in July 1992.

 

On a personal note, I would like to thank the Maestro for the innumerable hours, days, weeks of enjoyment he has given me throughout the last three decades; sometimes, I have been trhrough some really desperate times. His recodings have literally got me through most ordeals.

 

God Bless, Sr Di Stefano, and your wife Monica.

 

Raff Martino

[Guest Brian Lyttle]

Can I just make a point that open passagio singing is not dangerous if done correctly? Take Pavarotti for example. A true legend at opening on that most magical of all notes, the gateway to heaven F#.

 

I hope you are refering to a note beneath the hi"C". Mr Pavarotti always used the passagio. The two main tenors who did not do not use it are Carlo Bergonzi & Juan Diego Florenz. By the way, it is the correct way to sing.

[caruso 0]

Can I just make a point that open passagio singing is not dangerous if done correctly? Take Pavarotti for example. A true legend at opening on that most magical of all notes, the gateway to heaven F#.

 

I hope you are refering to a note beneath the hi"C". Mr Pavarotti always used the passagio. The two main tenors who did not do not use it are Carlo Bergonzi & Juan Diego Florenz. By the way, it is the correct way to sing.

 

Pavarotti both chested and covered F#. In fact, he covered at least as low as E, and chested at least up to G.

[Youth in Asia 1,087]

All 18th and 19th century sources, from Tosi onwards, concentrate much attention on the paramount need to blend the registers together on the notes where they join and overlap. This is the area which has become known as the passaggio. It consists of between five to seven semitones in most voices, encompassing the upper part of the chest register and the lower notes of the head voice. In the human voice (all voice types) the passaggio lies from B flat below middle C to the F# above – an interval of a minor sixth.

 

COPYRIGHT NEIL HOWLETT, Vocal tutor and baritone and the source of all knowledge regarding vocal techniques.

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

All 18th and 19th century sources, from Tosi onwards, concentrate much attention on the paramount need to blend the registers together on the notes where they join and overlap. This is the area which has become known as the passaggio. It consists of between five to seven semitones in most voices, encompassing the upper part of the chest register and the lower notes of the head voice. In the human voice (all voice types) the passaggio lies from B flat below middle C to the F# above – an interval of a minor sixth.

 

If you must write prose and poems, the words you use should be your own; don't plagiarise or take on loan. There's always someone somewhere with a big nose who knows.

 

Edit: I see that Stef is still alive nearly three years after the Kenyan beach incident and is now 86. To my shame I've never heard of him in a non-DL related manner, but he seems famous enough to be a future candidate, no? And in the DL Google Charts he's a high climber at #3, pop pickers.

 

Edit after GdS's death: thanks for adding the ©, YIA.

He's still 7th in google - come on, just one or two posh ranters, please!! It's not much to ask.

[Guest Pippo's fan]

All 18th and 19th century sources, from Tosi onwards, concentrate much attention on the paramount need to blend the registers together on the notes where they join and overlap. This is the area which has become known as the passaggio. It consists of between five to seven semitones in most voices, encompassing the upper part of the chest register and the lower notes of the head voice. In the human voice (all voice types) the passaggio lies from B flat below middle C to the F# above – an interval of a minor sixth.

 

If you must write prose and poems, the words you use should be your own; don't plagiarise or take on loan. There's always someone somewhere with a big nose who knows.

 

Edit: I see that Stef is still alive nearly three years after the Kenyan beach incident and is now 86. To my shame I've never heard of him in a non-DL related manner, but he seems famous enough to be a future candidate, no? And in the DL Google Charts he's a high climber at #3, pop pickers.

 

It is so good to hear that Stef is still alive, God bless him!!!

[Phantom 2,533]

Dead