Leone Giraldoni (born 4 July 1824, Paris – died 19 September 1897, Moscow) was a celebrated Italian operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

. He created the title roles of

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

's '' Il duca d'Alba'' (1882) and

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 ...

's ''

Simon Boccanegra ''Simon Boccanegra'' () is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play ''Simón Bocanegra'' (1843) by Antonio García Gutiérrez, whose play ''El trovador'' had bee ...

'' (1857) as well as the role of Renato in Verdi's '' Un ballo in maschera'' (1859). Giraldoni studied in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

with Luigi Ronzi and made his début as the High Priest in Pacini's '' Saffo'' ( Lodi, 1847). He made his

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

début as Il Conte di Luna in '' Il trovatore'' in 1850 and during his long career sang throughout Europe with considerable success. His final performance was in Filippo Marchetti's ''Don Giovanni d'Austria'' at Rome's Teatro Costanzi in 1885. After his retirement he taught voice and singing, first in Milan, and from 1891 at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

.Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J. (1979) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 2nd Edition, p. 195. Oxford University Press He was the author of two works on singing: *''Guida teorico-pratica ad uso dell'artista-cantante'', Bologna, 1864 (with a revised and expanded edition published in 1884) *''Compendium, Metodo analitico, filosofico e fisiologico per la educazione della voce'', Milan, Ricordi, 1889. Contemporary accounts describe his voice as warm, smooth and evenly produced. He also was considered to be an effective actor, with a noble and dignified stage presence and beautiful phrasing, qualities which made him one of Verdi's favourite baritones. Giraldoni belonged to a distinguished generation of baritones able to perform the then demanding new works of Verdi, as well as the existing ''

bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

'' operatic repertoire, with exemplary style and technical skill.

Personal life

Giraldoni was married to the well-known soprano and violinist Carolina Ferni. Their son, Eugenio Giraldoni (1870–1924), became a leading baritone like his father. In Rome in 1900, Eugenio created the role of Baron Scarpia in

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 ...

's ''

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 dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...

''.Steane, J.B. (2008)
"Giraldoni, Eugenio"
Oxford University Press. Forbes, Elizabeth. (2008)
"Giraldoni, Leone"
''The Grove Book of Opera Singers'', p. 192. Oxford University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giraldoni, Leone 1824 births 1897 deaths Italian operatic baritones Musicians from Paris Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory Italian expatriates in Russia 19th-century Italian male opera singers