Manuel Ausensi i Albalat (; 8 October 1919 – 1 September 2005) was a Catalan

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 ...

opera singer. Ausensi was born 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 ...

. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, he studied singing in Valencia and then in the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona. He made his stage debut in 1946 at the Tivoli Theater. In 1947 he sang in

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 ''

Anna Bolena ''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', ...

'' at the

Liceu The Gran Teatre del Liceu (; ; ), or simply Liceu, is a theater in Barcelona, Spain. Situated on La Rambla, it is the city's oldest theater building still in use for its original purpose. Founded in 1837 at another location, the Liceu ope ...

. He was considered particularly outstanding in roles such as Rigoletto, but also sang eighteenth century music such as Mozart and Cimarosa and French romantic opera at the Liceu for thirteen consecutive seasons. He recorded a famous full version of ''

The Barber of Seville ''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 ' ...

'' conducted by

Silvio Varviso Silvio Varviso (26 February 1924 – 1 November 2006) was a Swiss conductor who spent most of his career devoted to conducting opera. He began his conducting career working in minor opera houses in Switzerland in the mid-1940s. He became the ...

and co-starring

Teresa Berganza Teresa Berganza Vargas OAXS (16 March 1933 – 13 May 2022) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with roles such as Rossini's Rosina and La Cenerentola, and later Bizet's Carmen, admired for her technical virtuosity, mu ...

and

Ugo Benelli Ugo Benelli (born 20 January 1935) is an Italian operatic tenor. Born in Genoa and trained at La Scala, Benelli had an international career singing leading '' tenore di grazia'' roles from the early 1960s through the 1980s. In his later years he sa ...

in 1964. He also recorded the leading role in several Spanish

zarzuelas () is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name o ...

such as ''La calesera'', ''El caserío'', ''Los gavilanes'', ''Katiuska'', ''La legió d'honor'', '' Los diamantes de la corona'' and ''Jugar con fuego''. He retired in 1973, but in 1990 he returned for a benefit concert for the Opera House in Catalonia. In 1997 he received the

Creu de Sant Jordi The Creu de Sant Jordi (, in English language, English 'St George's Cross') is one of the highest civil distinctions awarded in Catalonia (Spain), surpassed only in protocol by the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Gold Medal of the G ...

. He died in

Creixell Creixell () is a municipality in the province of Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Auto ...

, aged 85.

References

Manuel Ausensi, cantante catalán y español de ópera y zarzuela
(obituary, ''El Mundo'') (Spanish) 1919 births 2005 deaths Singers from Barcelona Opera singers from Catalonia 20th-century Spanish male opera singers Spanish operatic baritones {{Catalonia-bio-stub