Miguel Burro Fleta (28 December 1897, in

Albalate de Cinca Albalate de Cinca is a municipality located in the Huesca (province), province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), INE), the municipality has a population of 1,222 inhabitants. See al ...

Province of Huesca Huesca (; ), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca. Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French departments of Haute-Garonne, Pyrénées- ...

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– 29 May 1938, in

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) was a Spanish operatic

lyric 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 mi ...

. Despite his short stage career, lasting from 1919 to 1935, Fleta has been described as one of the most significant Iberian opera singers of the 20th century. Among the important international venues at which he sang were

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 ...

, Milan, (in 1923-26) and the New York

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

(in 1923-25). Additionally, in 1926, he had the honour of creating the role of Calaf 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 posthumously-premiered final opera, ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...

'', at the insistence of La Scala's principal conductor,

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

. But this taxing dramatic role took him to the limit of his resources and he did not attempt it again. Fleta made his operatic debut in Trieste in 1919, having previously studied voice at the Madrid conservatory. Successful engagements in Rome followed, leading to his La Scala and Met debuts. He quit the Met in acrimonious circumstances, however, and the resultant legal action stopped him performing again in the United States. He was celebrated during his best years for the finesse with which he used his rich, flexible voice. The most notable aspect of his performance style was the nimbleness of his

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 ...

technique. This enabled him to produce spectacular

messa di voce ''Messa di voce'' (Italian: ''placing of the voice'') is a singing technique and musical ornament most idiomatically on a single pitch while executing a crescendo and diminuendo. It requires sustained control and masterly singing technique. I ...

and

pianissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between note (music), notes or phrase (music), phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation ...

effects. Unfortunately, Fleta's singing became increasingly self-indulgent as his career progressed. By the late 1920s, as recordings show, his voice had deteriorated badly, with his

vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...

loosening to an undesirable extent. Fleta died in straitened circumstances in 1938. He nonetheless left a legacy of sometimes fascinating records, many of which are available on CD reissues.

References

*''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' (second edition), edited by Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack, Oxford University Press, London, 1980. *''The Record of Singing'', Volume Two, by Michael Scott, Duckworth, London, 1979.

External links

History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration
1897 births 1938 deaths People from Cinca Medio Spanish operatic tenors Singers from Aragon Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu alumni 20th-century Spanish male opera singers Spanish expatriates in the United States {{spain-opera-singer-stub