Renato Capecchi

Renato Capecchi (born Cairo, November 6 1923; died Milan, June 30 1998) was an Italian baritone, actor, and opera director.

He sang in the Italian premiere of Shostakovich's "The Nose" and Prokofiev's "War and Peace", and in the world premieres of Gian Francesco Malipiero's "La donna è mobile", Giorgio Federico Ghedini's "Billy Budd" and "Lord Inferno", and Sylvano Bussotti's "L'ispirazione."

In 1951, Capecchi made his New York Metropolitan Opera debut as Germont in "La traviata" and sang regularly in leading roles there until 1954. After a period of singing primarily in European opera houses, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 1975 where he specialized in smaller comic roles in otherwise tragic operas such the Sacristan in "Tosca" and Benoit and Alcindoro in "La bohème".

Amongst the productions Capecchi directed were "The Daughter of the Regiment" at New York City Opera (1985), [Donal Henahan, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9505E5DE1339F931A15754C0A963948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Review: Daughter of the Regiment] , "The New York Times", July 22, 1985] "Così fan tutte" in Susa, Italy (1978), [ [http://www.cpanda.org/pdfs/csob/2101.pdf Central Opera Service Bulletin] Winter, 1978-79] and the US premiere of Giuseppe Gazzaniga's "Don Giovanni Tenorio, ossia Il convitato di pietra" with the San Francisco Opera Merola Opera Program, in Saratoga, California (1977). [ [http://www.cpanda.org/pdfs/csob/1904.pdf Central Opera Service Bulletin] 1977]

Renato Capecchi taught at the Manhattan School of Music for many years.

Bibliography

* Erik Eriksson, [http://www.answers.com/topic/renato-capecchi 'Renato Capecchi'] , Classical Artist Biographies, All Media Guide, 2006. (accessed 7 November 2007)
*Elizabeth Forbes, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980713/ai_n14177981 Obituary: Renato Capecchi] , "The Independent", July 13, 1998. (accessed 7 November 2007)
*Allan Kozinn, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E6DE143EF937A35754C0A96E958260 'Obituary: Renato Capecchi] , "The New York Times", July 4, 1998. (accessed 7 November 2007)
* [http://66.187.153.86/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/bowse3a.w?term=Capecchi,%20Renato%20%5BBaritone%5D&typ=Name&x=0&xHomePath=http://66.187.153.86/archives/&xHome=http://66.187.153.86/archives/bibpro.htm Metropolitan Opera Data Base] . (accessed 7 November 2007)

References