Enzo Mascherini (6 August 1910,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

- 29 July 1981, Livorno) was an Italian operatic baritone, one of the leading baritones of his generation. He studied in Florence with Titta Ruffo and Riccardo Stracciari and made his debut there in 1937, as Giorgio Germont in ''

La traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on '' La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his o ...

'', and also sang at the premiere of Gian Francesco Malipiero's ''Antonio e Cleopatra'', in 1938. He made his debut at the San Carlo in Naples, in 1939, and at the

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

in Milan, in 1940. He appeared in two legendary performances opposite Maria Callas, the first at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1951, as Montforte in '' I vespri siciliani'', under Erich Kleiber, and on opening night of the 1952-53 season at La Scala, as ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'', under Victor de Sabata. He also appeared there in ''La bohème'' (with

Giuseppe di Stefano Giuseppe Di Stefano (24 July 19213 March 2008) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. Called Pippo by both fans and friends, he was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voi ...

, 1952), ''La favorite'' (1953), ''Faust'' (with Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1954), ''Don Carlos'' (with Callas, 1954), and, again, ''La bohème'' (conducted by

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, 1955). After the war, he began an international career, appearing in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...

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San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, etc. In 1946 and 1947, Mascherini appeared at the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

, in ''La bohème'' (as Marcello), ''La traviata'' (with Dorothy Kirsten), ''Pagliacci'' (as Silvio, later as Tonio), ''Rigoletto'', ''Andrea Chénier'' (opposite

Vivian della Chiesa Vivian Della Chiesa (October 9, 1915 – January 6, 2009) was an American lyric soprano who achieved a high level of popularity in the United States singing on the radio during the 1940s and the early 1950s. Della Chiesa performed a wide variet ...

, directed by

Theodore Komisarjevsky Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky (russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Комиссаржевский; 23 May 1882 – 17 April 1954), or Theodore Komisarjevsky, was a Russian, later British, theatrical director and designer. He began his car ...

), and ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (with Luigi Infantino and Virginia MacWatters). He made his debut at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

on 7 December 1949 as Marcello in Giacomo Puccini's ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuse ...

'' with

Bidu Sayão Balduína "Bidú" de Oliveira Sayão (11 May 1902 – 12 March 1999) was a Brazilian opera soprano. One of Brazil's most famous musicians, Sayão was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1937 to 1952. Life and caree ...

as Mimì, Ferruccio Tagliavini as Rodolfo, Lois Hunt as Musetta, and

Giuseppe Antonicelli Giuseppe Antonicelli (Castrovillari, 1897 - Trieste, 10 March 1980) was an Italian conductor who was highly active with Italy's leading opera houses from the 1920s through the 1950s. Among the houses he conducted at were, La Scala in Milan, the Te ...

conducting. He performed in several other roles at the Met during the 1949-1950 season, including Germont in ''

'' (with Licia Albanese as Violetta and Jan Peerce as Alfredo), Lescaut in '' Manon Lescaut'' (with Richard Tucker as Des Grieux), Valentin in ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The wiktionary:erudite, erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a ...

'' (with di Stefano in the title role), and the title role in ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...

'' (with Erna Berger as Gilda).Metropolitan Opera Archives
/ref> He also went on tour to South Africa in 1951. A fine singing-actor with a powerful voice and solid technique, he taught in Florence after retiring from the stage. Among his pupils was the Swiss bass-baritone

Alexander Malta Alexander Malta (28 September 1938 as Alexander Lagger – 23 August 2016) was a Swiss operatic bass-baritone. Life Born in St. Gallen, after the Matura at the , he studied in Zürich and Italy and made his debut in 1966 in Stuttgart as Monk i ...

. He can be heard on disc in '' Dom Sébastien'', opposite Fedora Barbieri; ''

La favorite ''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le co ...

'', opposite Giulietta Simionato; ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dr ...

'', opposite Renata Tebaldi; and the aforementioned "live" ''I vespri siciliani'' and ''Macbeth'' with Callas. In 1949, the baritone participated in a cinematic version of ''Il trovatore'' (available from the Bel Canto Society).

Sources

* ''Le guide de l'opéra'', Roland Mancini & Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, Fayard, 1986,

External links

* (1949). {{DEFAULTSORT:Mascherini, Enzo 1910 births 1981 deaths Italian operatic baritones 20th-century Italian male opera singers