Giulio Gari

Giulio Gari was one of the most versatile artists to grace the world’s Opera and concert stages. A leading tenor, he sang a broad operatic repertoire of more than fifty-five lyric and dramatic roles. He sang with the New York City Opera (1945-52) and with the Metropolitan Opera (1953-61). Audiences remember him for his remarkable vocal and musical talent and for his dramatic ability; colleagues remember him for his talent, but also for his friendship, generosity, and kindness.

Early life

Born in 1909 in Mediaş, Romania, the youngest of a family of ten children, he gained recognition as a child singing in operetta throughout Romania and Hungary. He studied with the celebrated Viennese soprano Lotte Gelinek and later at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan.

Career

In 1938 he made his operatic debut at Rome’s Teatro Reale dell’Opera, when he substituted for Tito Schipa as Almaviva in Gioachino Rossini’s "Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)" under the baton of the legendary Tullio Serafin.

Soon after, he secured a National Broadcasting Company contract singing every week with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and performing on the NBC Radio show, "Musical Bits", with Phil Spitalny conducting.

In 1939 he sang at the St Louis Opera in the American premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti’s "Amelia Goes to the Ball"--the beginning of his long association with Maestro Laszlo Halasz, founder of the New York City Opera.

In 1945 he made his official debut with a leading American opera company when he stepped onto the stage of the New York City Opera for the first time as Erik in Richard Wagner’s "Der Fliegende Hollander". Composer Virgil Thomson, then music critic of the "New York Herald Tribune", wrote “the vocal treat of the evening was Giulio Gari, who sang with beauty of voice, easy command of the heroic style and no hesitancy about the high notes.”

Gari toured Latin America and the Caribbean garnering ecstatic reviews, particularly in 1946 when he sang the challenging tenor lead in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Havana Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. In Central America he performed with Gladys Swarthout and in Guatemala participated in the first opera season there in twenty years.

On January 6, 1953, Gari made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera singing Pinkerton to the Butterfly of the renowned Licia Albanese. "New York Times" critic Howard Taubman praised “his fine voice …fine style…skill and polish” and predicted a luminous future for the debutant.

Reaction

Gari garnered superlative reviews throughout his career. Noel Strauss of the "New York Times" wrote of his Rodolfo in La Boheme that it provided “the most distinguished vocalism of the evening, he showed sensitivity and marked refinement of style, climactic and exciting.” Similar critical adulation was expressed for his many other roles — the Duke of Mantua in "Rigoletto", and Calaf in "Turandot" for example.

His versatility, preparedness, and stamina were legendary. When he performed both Turiddu in "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Canio in "Pagliacci", rarely ever attempted, the "New York Times" lauded him for singing both parts “with their different tessitura and their severe demands on an artist’s vocal and histrionic endurance,” and for delivering each “with remarkable control of his fine voice and an unusual depth of human feeling. That same evening he went on to sing Don Jose in "Carmen".

Gari could always be counted on to appear whenever occasion demanded and to deliver superb performances, even when he was singing a regular 32-week schedule. Once during the Metropolitan Opera’s annual seven-week tour he was flown to Boston to sing his first Don Carlo in a performance hailed as “sterling.” He also astounded everyone when he made last-minute appearances as the Duke in Rigoletto, Don Jose in Carmen, and Dimitry in "Boris Godunov", on three successive nights.

Gari also appeared frequently as a guest artist. He sang in a movie version of Verdi’s "La Traviata"; he performed in Kodaly’s "Psalmus Hungaricus" at Carnegie Hall, and in the American Premiere of Ildebrando Pizzettie’s "L’Assassinio nella Cattedrale" at the Empire State Music Festival.

Retirement

Gari retired from the Metropolitan in 1961. In 1964 he became director of the Voice Department of the Long Island Institute of Music. He also taught voice at Lehigh University. In 1970 he joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1974 he began teaching at Temple University. During this time, he also maintained his private voice studio in Manhattan and served as Cantor at Temple Sinai in Forest Hills, New York.

In 2002 a foundation to honor Giulio Gari was established by his widow Gloria Gari, a vocal competition is held annually in New York City.

References

Biography taken from the Giulio Gari Website-www.giuliogari.org [http://www.giuliogari.org] written by Lucia DeRosa and Janet Oseroff

Added material written by Christina Foster