Ezio Pinza(Italian-American bass) Thomas Le caïd Air du: 'Tambour-Major' 1927

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Ezio Pinza(Italian-American bass) Thomas Le caïd Air du: 'Tambour-Major' 1927

Thomas:
Le caïd Air du 'Tambour-Major' 1927
Ezio Pinza
Italian-American bass, 1892 - 1957

an operbathosa video

Ezio Pinza Part 1:
Ezio Pinza (May 18, 1892 - May 9 1957) was an Italian basso opera singer. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. He also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan, and at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. After retiring from the Met in 1948, he enjoyed a fresh career on Broadway in the musical theatre and appeared in several films.
Biography
Pinza was born in modest circumstances in Rome in 1892 and grew up in Ravenna. He studied at Bologna's Conservatorio Martini and his operatic debut came in 1914, as Oroveso in Norma, in Cremona.
After enduring four years of military service during World War I, Pinza resumed his operatic career in Rome in 1919. He then sang at Italy's foremost opera house, La Scala, Milan, making his debut there in February 1922. At La Scala, under the direction of the brilliant and exacting principal conductor Arturo Toscanini, Pinza's career blossomed during the course of the next few seasons due to the high quality of his singing and the attractiveness of his stage presence.

Pinza's Met debut occurred in November 1926 in Spontini's La Vestale, with the famed American soprano Rosa Ponselle in the title role. In 1929, he sang Don Giovanni, a role with which he was subsequently to become closely identified. He subsequently added the Mozart roles Figaro (in 1940) and Sarastro (in 1942) to his repertoire, as well as a vast number of Italian operatic roles of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Giuseppe Verdi, as well as Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (sung in Italian). Apart from the Met, Pinza appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1930-1939 and was invited to sing at the Salzburg Festival in 1934-1937 by the celebrated German conductor Bruno Walter.

Pinza sang once again under the baton of Toscanini in 1935, this time with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, as the bass soloist in performances of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. One of these performances was broadcast by CBS and preserved on transcription discs; this recording has been issued on LPs and CDs. He also sang in the February 6, 1938, NBC Symphony Orchestra's broadcast performance of Beethoven's ninth symphony.[1] These performances both took place in Carnegie Hall.

Pinza's repertoire consisted of some 95 classical parts. He retired from the Met in 1948 and embarked on a second career in Broadway musicals. In April 1949, he appeared in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, originating the role of French Planter Emil de Becque, and his operatic-style, highly expressive performance of the hit song "Some Enchanted Evening" made him a matinee idol and a national celebrity. In 1950, he received a Tony Award for best lead actor in a musical. (His understudy in the musical, Richard Eastham, went on to establish an acting career.)

Pinza became a member of Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York, and lived in a private house adjacent to the fifth golf hole of the South Course. In 1953, he had his own short-lived NBC situation comedy, Bonino, in which he appeared as a recently-widowed Italian-American opera singer trying to rear his six children. Two of the children were portrayed by Van Dyke Parks and Chet Allen, who had also been with the American Boychoir. Then in 1954, he appeared in the Broadway production of Fanny opposite Florence Henderson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezio_Pinza

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[orsoghiotto]

Not Italian-American.. Pinza was Italian

[operbathosa]

@orsoghiotto Ezio Pinza born Rome later American: buried Connecticut U.S.A. [Italian/Later American] Move on.

[saltburner2]

Paul: I'm an admirer of Pinza, especially in Verdi: but I do think this particular aria really belongs to Pol Plancon, who made four recordings of it. The last of the Victors is probably the best.

Dan

[operbathosa]

@saltburner2 I have listened to Pol Plancon performing this aria: but i could not hear the clarity and definition from his voice. (I listened to the version availabe here on YouTube)

[thephantom1946]

I must add that this is a coloratura aria which of course requires great flexibility and agility, which Pinza had in full measure, not to mention beauty of timbre and flawless technique. This is great sound quality for a 1927 recording and still shows the sonorous quality of his voice.

[thephantom1946]

Yes, Pinza became an American citizen in the early forties. I also prefer Pinza's version of this over Plancon, or Ramey.

[pregamariaperme]

Somebody have French lyrics of this aria?please send me :)

[UtDePoitrine]

Plançon lo ridicolizza.

[coalbanks]

As much as I like Ramey I am tempted to prefer Pinza on this ocassion. Each has his strengths, the pleasure is in comparing/enjoying each & others. thanks to all contributors & the performers.

[arpeggio1358]

I'm sorry, I don't wish to offend anyone, but I prefer Samuel Ramey's versin of this. Ramey's voice really has the flexibility and agility required to sing it. Some of Pinza's pitches are a little off, too.