Franco Ventriglia

Franco Ventriglia is an opera singer who sang bass in every major European opera house for over twenty years during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He returned to the U.S. in 1978 and continued performing there (including Carnegie Hall) and in southeast Asia until his retirement at age 79.

Biography

Franco Ventriglia was born in 1922 in Fairfield, Connecticut. He grew up on a truck farm and was graduated from high school there in 1941. He enlisted in the Marine Corps serving in the First Marine Aircraft Wing in the South Pacific during World War II. After returning from the war, he was working at his brother's filling station in Easton, Connecticut when Mario Pagano, a "maestro de Canto" at the American Theatre Wing Professional School heard from one of Ventriglia's coworkers about his singing talent. Ventriglia passed an audition and went on to attend ATW's Professional School on the G.I. Bill, crossing paths with fellow classmate Marlon Brando, among others.

inging career

Ventriglia worked as an inspector at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, CT and sang in local concerts. After attending a few of Ventriglia's concerts in Bridgeport, CT, Igor Sikorsky, a music lover, granted Ventriglia permission to take one day off from work each week to continue his voice studies in New York City. After Pagano's untimely death, Ventriglia and his wife Jean boarded the ocean liner SS Constitution for Italy. On board, after singing "Ol' Man River" for a group in first class, he met a businessman who asked him to contact Toti Dal Monte, a great coloratura soprano who also taught voice in Rome. She gave him free lessons and he eventually made his operatic debut in Palermo, singing in the "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". He later sang with Luciano Pavarotti in "La Bohème" and "Rigoletto". He performed in "Samson and Delilah" at La Scala, a performance he considered the highlight of his career.

Retirement

Opera singers, namely tenors, usually retire when they are in their 50s, but basses can perform longer; Ventriglia's last concert was at the age of 79. He has since retired and is living in a retirement community in Wallingford, Connecticut with his wife Jean.

External links and sources

* [http://www.masonicare.org/sage13a.htm Record-Journal.com interview with Franco Ventriglia]
* [http://www.record-journal.com/articles/2004/12/26/features/features01.txt Successful opera career was destiny] , a December 2004 article from a Connecticut newspaper
* [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/classical-artist-search/Ventriglia%2C%20Franco/ Recordings by Franco Ventriglia] from Amazon.com