Juan Oncina (April 15, 1921 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

– December 29, 2009 in Barcelona) was a Spanish

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

, particularly associated with

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...

and light

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...

roles, one of the leading tenore di grazia of the 1950s.

Life and career

Juan Oncina began his vocal studies in Barcelona with Mercedes Capsir, and later in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, with Augusta Oltrabella. He made his debut in Barcelona, as des Grieux in ''

Manon ''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was f ...

'', in 1946. The same year he made his Italian debut in Bologna, as Almaviva in ''

Il barbiere di Siviglia ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( ) is an ''opera buffa'' (comic opera) in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy '' ...

''. He appeared in 1949, as Paolino in ''

Il matrimonio segreto ' (''The Secret Marriage'') is a dramma giocoso in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the 1766 play '' The Clandestine Marriage'' by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick. It was first performed ...

'', in Paris, and in Cherubini's ''L'osteria portoghese'' and

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( – 22 March 1687) was a French composer, dancer and instrumentalist of Italian birth, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court o ...

's '' Armide'', in Florence. The turning point in his career came in 1952, when he made his debut at the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

, where he was to appear until 1961, especially in

roles such as Almaviva, Lindoro in ''

L'italiana in Algeri ''L'italiana in Algeri'' (; ''The Italian Girl in Algiers'') is an operatic ''dramma giocoso'' in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca. It premiered at the Teatro San ...

'', Ramiro in ''

La Cenerentola ("Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant") is an operatic in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the libretti written by Charles-Guillaume Étienne for the opera '' Cendrillon'' with music by Nico ...

'', and most notably as '' Le comte Ory'', possibly his greatest success. Apart from Rossini, he also excelled in opera by Cimarosa and

Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini. Life Paisiello was born in ...

. Other notable roles included: Don Ottavio in ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'', Nemorino in ''

L'elisir d'amore ''L'elisir d'amore'' (; ''The Elixir of Love'') is a (comic melodrama, opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's (1831). ...

'', Ernesto in ''

Don Pasquale ''Don Pasquale'' () is a Gaetano Donizetti opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts, with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi's oper ...

'', Fenton in ''

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

''. In the 1960s, he began, perhaps unwisely, to expand his repertory towards heavier roles in opera by

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...

and

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

. Oncina was married to soprano Tatiana Menotti.

Selected recordings

* G.Rossini - ''Le Comte Ory'' -

Vittorio Gui Vittorio Gui (14 September 188516 October 1975) was an Italian conductor, composer, musicologist and critic. Gui was born in Rome in 1885. He graduated in humanities at the University of Rome and also studied composition at the Accademia Nazio ...

- EMI - 1956 * G.Rossini - ''La Cenerentola'' - Vittorio Gui - EMI - 1953 * G.Donizetti - ''Don Pasquale'' - István Kertész - DECCA - 1964 * G.Verdi - ''Falstaff'' -

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis 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 th ...

- Sony - 1966 * G.Verdi - ''Un giorno di regno'' - Alfredo Simonetto - Cetra - 1951

Sources

* Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), ''Guide de l’opéra'', Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). {{DEFAULTSORT:Oncina, Juan 1921 births 2009 deaths Opera singers from Catalonia Spanish operatic tenors 20th-century Spanish male opera singers Singers from Barcelona