Giorgio Ronconi

Giorgio Ronconi (6 August, 1810 - 8 January, 1890) was an Italian baritone, the first singer of the title-role in Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco" (1843).

He was born in Milan and learnt to sing from his father, Domenico, who had been a celebrated tenor in his time, and made his debut at Pavia in 1831, as Valdeburgo in Bellini's "La straniera".

In the 1830s and 1840s, he appeared in the first performances of seven operas by Donizetti, as follows:

* 1833, as Cardenio in Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo
* 1833, in the title role in Torquato Tasso
* 1836, as Enrico in Il campanello
* 1837 as Nello Dello Pietra in Pia de' Tolomei
* 1838 as Corrado Waldorf in Maria de Rudenz
* 1841 as Don Pedro in Maria Padilla
* 1843 as Enrico, duke of Chevreuse, in Maria di Rohan

After singing in Italy for some years with ever-growing success, he appeared for the first time in England, in 1842, as Henry Ashton in "Lucia di Lammermoor". His success was immediate, and he continued to be one of the most popular artists on the lyric stage until his retirement in 1866. His voice was neither extensive in compass nor fine in quality, but the genius of his acting and the strength of his personality fully atoned for his vocal defects. He was equally at home in comedy and tragedy, and the two parts by which he is best remembered, Rigoletto, in the opera of the same name, and Figaro, showed the range of his talent. A large section is devoted to descriptions of Ronconi's powers in Chorley's Recollections. [H. F. Chorley (1862), "Thirty Years' Musical Recollections". Hurst & Blackett, London, Volume II, The Year 1847, pp. 14-21. [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=PoAQAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22henry+fothergill+chorley%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=ewKVODvQh7&sig=HBifqHKaFT4Tmvg7fpi1Ll4rO40#PPA14,M1] ] In his later years, Ronconi founded a school of singing at Granada, and he also accepted the post of professor of singing at the Madrid Conservatory. He died in Madrid.

'The word 'libertà' ("freedom") was expunged from the Italian stage-vocabulary by the Austrians. In the duet 'Suoni la tromba' ("I Puritani"), on one occasion, Ronconi gave the words 'gridando libertà' ("crying 'Liberty!"') with such vigour and emphasis that the audience were excited to the pitch of frenzy, and a great commotion ensued. Next morning he received a reprimand for using the prohibited word, accompanied by a request to use the word 'lealtà' ("loyalty") on future occasions in its stead. Shortly after, playing Il Sargente in "l'elisir d'amore", in deference to the request, for "perdè la liberta" (lost his freedom) he substituted "perdè la lealtà" (lost his loyalty), which was received with shrieks of laughter by the audience, to the great discomfiture of the advocates of 'loyalty.' [C. Santley (1892), "Student and Singer, The Reminiscences of Charles Santley". Edward Arnold, London, p. 80.]

References

*1911