Lamberto Gardelli

Lamberto Gardelli (November 8, 1915 - July 17, 1998) was an Italian conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory, especially the works of Giuseppe Verdi.

Born in Venice, Italy, he studied with Amilcare Zanella and Adriano Ariani at the Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro, and later at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He worked as the assistant of Tullio Serafin at the Rome Opera, and made his debut as conductor there with "La traviata" in 1944.

He became chief conductor at the Stockholm Opera in 1946 and remained until 1955. He was then chief conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1955 until 1961, and of the Hungarian State Opera from 1961 until 1966, while making guest appearances at the Glyndebourne Festival, the Royal Opera House in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, etc.

Gardelli was considered a specialist in the works of Giuseppe Verdi, and made several recordings of his operas in the 1960s and 1970s, especially many of the neglected early ones with record companies such as Orfeo and Philips. These included "Alzira", "Attila", "Stiffelio", "I masnadieri", "Ernani", "Oberto", "Un giorno di regno", "Il corsaro", as well as more well-known works such as "Nabucco", "Macbeth", "La traviata", "La forza del destino".

He did not limit himself to Verdi, he also recorded the first complete French version of Rossini's "Guillaume Tell" with Montserrat Caballé, Nicolai Gedda and Gabriel Bacquier, and Giordano's "Fedora" with the rarely recorded Magda Olivero and Mario del Monaco. He was also mentor to several noted sopranos, including Lucia Aliberti and Sylvia Sass.

In later years, Gardelli held posts as chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

He was made an "Officier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres" in 1995, by the "Ministère de la Culture et de la Francophonie".

Gardelli died in Munich, Germany, at the age of 82.

elected recordings

* Cherubini - "Medea" - Dame Gwyneth Jones, Bruno Prevedi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Justino Diaz - Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia - DECCA

* Verdi - "Nabucco" - Tito Gobbi, Elena Souliotis, Dora Carral, Bruno Prevedi, Carlo Cava - Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra - DECCA

* Verdi - "Macbeth" - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elena Souliotis, Luciano Pavarotti, Nicolai Ghiaurov - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony - DECCA

* Verdi - "La traviata" - Mirella Freni, Franco Bonisolli. Sesto Bruscantini - Berlin State Opera Chorus and Orchestra - ACCORD

* Verdi - "La forza del destino" - Martina Arroyo, Carlo Bergonzi, Piero Cappuccilli, Bianca Maria Casoni, Ruggero Raimondi, Geraint Evans - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Royal Philarmonic Orchestra - EMI

* Ponchielli - "La Gioconda" - Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill, Marilyn Horne, Nikolai Ghiuzelev, Oralia Dominguez - Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia - DECCA

* Puccini - "Il tabarro" - Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Robert Merrill - Chorus and Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - DECCA

* Puccini - "Suor Angelica" - Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato - Chorus and Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - DECCA

* Puccini - "Gianni Schicchi" - Fernando Corena, Renata Tebaldi, Agostino Lazzari - Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - DECCA

ources

* [http://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Gardelli/lebenslauf_1.html Biography (in German)]