- Enrico di Giuseppe
Enrico di Giuseppe (born on
October 14 ,1932 ; died onDecember 31 ,2005 , in Voorhees, New Jersey) was a celebrated American operatictenor . Born inPhiladelphia ,Pennsylvania , he studied at theCurtis Institute of Music . He made his formal debut in the summer of 1959, as the Chevalier des Grieux in "Manon", with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America (affiliated with theNew Orleans Opera Association), conducted byRenato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini.He first sang with the
New York City Opera in 1965, as Michele, in the company premiere of Menotti's "The Saint of Bleecker Street". The tenor returned in 1967 for what was possibly his greatest success, the difficult, "tenor-altino" role of the Astrologue in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Le coq d'or", oppositeNorman Treigle andBeverly Sills , conducted byJulius Rudel and directed byTito Capobianco . He went on to perform for that company in "Il barbiere di Siviglia", "Die Zauberflöte", "Der Rosenkavalier", "Cavalleria rusticana", "Tosca", "Manon", "Gianni Schicchi", "Madama Butterfly", "Faust", "Capriccio", "La traviata", "La bohème", "La cenerentola", "Lucia di Lammermoor", "Rigoletto", "Un ballo in maschera", "Roberto Devereux", "Don Giovanni" (directed byFrank Corsaro ), "Maria Stuarda", "Anna Bolena", "I puritani", "La fille du régiment", "Attila", "The Makropulos Case", and "Mefistofele".The tenor first sang at the
Metropolitan Opera house in 1970, in "Madama Butterfly". He was seen there, until 1986, in "Cavalleria", "Il barbiere", "Werther" (replacingFranco Corelli ), "Rigoletto", "La fille du régiment" (opposite DameJoan Sutherland ), "La bohème", "La traviata", "Un ballo in maschera", "La sonnambula", "Faust", "L'elisir d'amore", "L'italiana in Algeri" (withMarilyn Horne ), "Der Rosenkavalier", "Don Pasquale", "Così fan tutte", "Le siège de Corinthe", "Adriana Lecouvreur" (oppositeRenata Scotto ), "Samson" (as The Philistine Man, withJon Vickers in the name part), and "Rigoletto".Following his retirement, di Giuseppe taught at
Florida State University andThe Juilliard School . He can be heard as Pollione in Bellini's "Norma" (1973), on ABC Records, with Sills,Shirley Verrett ,Paul Plishka , andJames Levine conducting his first operatic recording. At the age of 73, the tenor succumbed to cancer.References
* "The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia", edited by David Hamilton, Simon and Schuster, 1987. ISBN 0-671-61732-X
External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v20EEY_Scl4] YouTube: Enrico di Giuseppe in an excerpt from "Macbeth" (1984).
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