- Renato Cioni
Renato Cioni (
April 15 ,1929 ) is an Italian operatictenor , particularly associated with the Italian repertory.Born on the Isle of
Elba , the son of a fisherman, Cioni received his main musical education at the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence. In 1956, as a result of winning an international voice contest organized by theRome Opera , he made his stage debut atSpoleto , as Edgardo in "Lucia di Lammermoor ". Earlier that same year he had appeared as Pinkerton, in a television production of "Madama Butterfly ", opposite another debutante,Anna Moffo .He quickly was in great demand as a leading tenor throughout Italy, making debut in Rome, Naples, Palermo, Venice, Genoa, Trieste, Bologna,and Catania, etc. He made his
La Scala debut on March 4, 1961, as Pinkerton, underGianandrea Gavazzeni .Soon he was also singing outside Italy, appearing in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and France.In 1959, Cioni made his American debut at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, followed by a concert performance of "
Il duca d'Alba " atCarnegie Hall in New York, which he had also sung earlier that year at theSpoleto Festival . He made his debut at theSan Francisco Opera in 1961, as Edgardo, and at theMetropolitan Opera in 1970, as Pollione, oppositeJoan Sutherland andMarilyn Horne .A lyric tenor, his repertory included roles in opera such as: "
La sonnambula ", "Rigoletto ", "La traviata ", "Un ballo in maschera ", "Cavalleria rusticana ", "La bohème ", "Tosca ", etc.Cioni became widely known through his studio recordings of "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "Rigoletto", opposite
Joan Sutherland , in 1961.In 1964, he took part in two historical performances, first at Covent Garden, as Cavaradossi in "Tosca", opposite
Maria Callas andTito Gobbi , and then at La Scala, as Alfredo in "La traviata", oppositeAnna Moffo andMario Sereni , underHerbert Von Karajan .ources
* Biography taken from the original booklet of the 1961 studio recording of "Lucia di Lammermoor" with Joan Sutherland, under
John Pritchard , plus additional information from Operissimo.com.
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