Luigi Infantino (; 24 April 1921 – 22 June 1991) was an Italian operatic

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 the lyric Italian and French repertories. Luigi Infantino was born in Racalmuto, and studied at the

Parma Conservatory The Conservatorio di Musica Arrigo Boito, better known in English as the Parma Conservatory, is a music conservatory in Parma, Italy. It was originally established as the Regia Scuola di Canto, a school for singing in 1819 by Marie Louise, Duches ...

with

Italo Brancucci Italo Brancucci (1904, in La Spezia – 1958, in Rome) was an Italian composer and singing teacher. He taught at the Conservatorio Arrigo Boito in Parma for many years. Several of his pupils went on to have major opera careers, including Luigi Infa ...

. He made his debut in 1943, at the Teatro Regio in Parma, as Rodolfo in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'', which was also his debut role at the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is a historic opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and a ...

in Naples, in 1945. With that company, he appeared in London as the Duke 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 c ...

'', and Rodolfo. In 1948, he made his debut at the

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was a church). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's ''Europa r ...

in Milan, as Nadir in ''

Les pêcheurs de perles ' (, ''The Pearl Fishers'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performan ...

'', later singing 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 ...

'', which he also sang that same year at the

Verona Arena The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre located in the historic center of Verona, an iconic symbol of the Venetian city alongside the figures of Romeo and Juliet. It stands as one of the grand structures that defined Roman architecture and ...

. The tenor sang regularly in Naples and Bologna, and made guest appearances 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 its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...

in 1947: ''La traviata'' (with Enzo Mascherini as Giorgio), ''Rigoletto'' (opposite

Giuseppe Valdengo Giuseppe Valdengo (May 24, 1914, Turin – October 3, 2007, Aosta) was an Italian operatic baritone. '' Opera News'' said that, "Although his timbre lacked the innate beauty of some of his baritone contemporaries, Valdengo's performances were ...

and Virginia MacWatters), ''Madama Butterfly'', ''La bohème'', ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (conducted by

Julius Rudel Julius Rudel (6 March 1921 – 26 June 2014) was an Austrian-born American opera and orchestra conductor. He was born in Vienna and was a student at the city's Academy of Music. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 in 1938 after th ...

) and ''Don Giovanni'' (in

Theodore Komisarjevsky Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky (; 23 May 1882 – 17 April 1954), or Theodore Komisarjevsky, was a Russian, later British, theatrical director and designer. He began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London. He was note ...

's production). In 1949, the tenor went on a concert-tour of England and Australia. In 1954, at the Teatro Fenice in Venice, Infantino sang Edgardo to the Lucia of

Maria Callas Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophia Kalogeropoulos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised ...

, in ''Lucia di Lammermoor''. Infantino toured England again in 1957 giving a concert at Cheltenham among others. At the

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Rome Opera House) is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat ''Costanzi Theatre'', it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements. The pres ...

, he created ''Amleto'', by Mario Zefred, in 1961, and ''La stirpe di Davide'' by Franco Mannino, in 1962. In 1964 Infantino reprised his role of Edgardo at the Bombay Opera in India, with soprano Celia Baptista as his Lucia. He was also active throughout his career singing on Italian Radio (

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

), where he gave his last performance in 1973, in Mannino's ''Il diavolo in giardino''. A stylish lyric tenor with an attractive voice, Infantino can be heard in complete recordings of '' La traviata'' (

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

, 1946) and ''

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 '' ...

'' (

Cetra Cetra, a Latin word borrowed from Greek, is an Italian descendant of ''κιθάρα'' (cithara). It is a synonym for the cittern but has been used for the citole and cithara (the lyre-form) and cythara (the lyre-form developing into a necked i ...

, 1950, opposite

Giuseppe Taddei Giuseppe Taddei (26 June 1916 – 2 June 2010) was an Italian baritone, who, during his career, performed multiple operas composed by numerous composers. Taddei was born in Genoa, Italy, and studied in Rome, where he made his professional debut ...

and

Giulietta Simionato Giulietta Simionato (born Giulia Simionato; Forlì, Romagna, 12 May 1910 – Rome, 5 May 2010) was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966. Life As a girl she studied in a boarding s ...

). There is also a live recording of ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

'', sung in Italian (Melodram, 1962).

Private Life

Infantino had two wives,

Sarah Ferrati Sarah Ferrati (9 December 1909 - 3 March 1982), sometimes spelled Sara Ferrati, was an Italian actress, mainly active on stage. Life and career Born in Prato, Ferrati studied acting at the in Florence, graduating in 1926.Emanuela Del Monaco ( ...

until her death in 1982 and Raina Nikolova Infantino, a lyrical soprano from Bulgaria. He had one daughter from each wife. BG Voice (February 10, 2024) https://bgvoice.com/mariia-elena-infantino-edna-zvezda-rodena-ot-zvezdi-mejdu-london-el-ei-i-sofiia Infantino died in Rome, aged 70 from a heart attack.

Filmography

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Infantino, Luigi 1921 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Italian male opera singers Italian operatic tenors Musicians from the Province of Agrigento Parma Conservatory alumni People from Racalmuto