Giacomo Rimini
Encyclopedia
Giacomo Rimini was an Italian-born, naturalized-American opera
tic baritone
. He was most admired for his interpretations of the works of Giuseppe Verdi
.
, Rimini studied at the Verona Music Conservatory with Conti Foroni. He began his operatic career in Italy in his early twenties. His first lead role was as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen
at the age of 22. In 1910 he sang the role of Albert in Massenet's Werther
at the municipal theatre of Desenzano. He sang with many notable Italian opera houses over the next several years including the Teatro Regio (Turin), the Teatro Massimo in Palermo
, and at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. In 1915, Rimini was chosen by Arturo Toscanini
to sing the title role in Verdi's Falstaff
at the Teatro del Verme in Milan
. He reprised the role later that year with Toscanini at La Scala
in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III.
Also in 1915, Rimini met Polish opera singer Rosa Raisa
and the two of them fell in love with each other. They married in 1916 and moved to Chicago, Illinois shortly thereafter where they would both establish a long association with the Chicago City Opera Company
, the Chicago Civic Opera
, and the Ravinia Festival. Rimini had been married once previously to a woman from Rome, Rafaelle Bettei. Rimini and Raisa became naturalized citizens of the United States a few years after moving to Chicago.
Although Rimini primarily worked in Chicago, he and his wife did occasionally travel to other parts of the United States for performances, usually performing together. They also maintained a villa in Verona where they would spend their summers and occasionally appear in operas. Most notably, Rimini originated the role of Ping in Puccini's Turandot
at La Scala
in 1926 opposite his wife in the title role. He also was the first person to completely record the role of Falstaff, which he also did with La Scala forces in 1932.
In addition to Falstaff and Escamillo, Rimini was admired for his portrayals of the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto
, Iago in Verdi's Otello
, Amonasro in Verdi's Aida
, Renato in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
, Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tonio in Pagliacci
, Barnaba in Amilcare Ponchielli
's La Gioconda
among others. In addition to frequently singing opposite his wife on the operatic and concert stage, Rimini also performed frequently with Amelita Galli-Curci
. The two of them sang their first Figaro and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia together with the Chicago Opera Company among many other performances.
Rimini and his wife both retired from the operatic stage in 1938, deciding to dedicate their time to teaching the next generation of opera singers. They opened a voice/opera school in Chicago which they ran for two decades. As a part of the school, students would travel to Italy with Rimini and his wife to study in Verona, often staying at their teacher's villa. Rimini and Raisa had one daughter, Rosa Guilietta Segala, who was born in July 1931.
Giacomo Rimini died on March 6, 1952 in his sleep at his home in Chicago.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
. He was most admired for his interpretations of the works of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
.
Biography
Born and raised in VeronaVerona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, Rimini studied at the Verona Music Conservatory with Conti Foroni. He began his operatic career in Italy in his early twenties. His first lead role was as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
at the age of 22. In 1910 he sang the role of Albert in Massenet's Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
at the municipal theatre of Desenzano. He sang with many notable Italian opera houses over the next several years including the Teatro Regio (Turin), the Teatro Massimo in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, and at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. In 1915, Rimini was chosen by Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
to sing the title role in Verdi's Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
at the Teatro del Verme in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. He reprised the role later that year with Toscanini at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III.
Also in 1915, Rimini met Polish opera singer Rosa Raisa
Rosa Raisa
Rosa Raisa was a Polish-born, Italian-trained, dramatic operatic soprano. In 1926 she created the role of Turandot at La Scala, Milan.-Career:...
and the two of them fell in love with each other. They married in 1916 and moved to Chicago, Illinois shortly thereafter where they would both establish a long association with the Chicago City Opera Company
Chicago City Opera Company
The Chicago City Opera Company was a grand opera company in Chicago, organized from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Chicago Grand Opera Company, that produced four seasons of opera at the Civic Opera House from 1935 to 1939 before it too succumbed to financial difficulties...
, the Chicago Civic Opera
Chicago Civic Opera
The Civic Opera Company was a Chicago company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in the Auditorium Theater from 1922 to 1928, and three seasons at its own Civic Opera House from 1929 to 1931 before falling victim to financial difficulties brought on in part by the Great Depression.-...
, and the Ravinia Festival. Rimini had been married once previously to a woman from Rome, Rafaelle Bettei. Rimini and Raisa became naturalized citizens of the United States a few years after moving to Chicago.
Although Rimini primarily worked in Chicago, he and his wife did occasionally travel to other parts of the United States for performances, usually performing together. They also maintained a villa in Verona where they would spend their summers and occasionally appear in operas. Most notably, Rimini originated the role of Ping in Puccini's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in 1926 opposite his wife in the title role. He also was the first person to completely record the role of Falstaff, which he also did with La Scala forces in 1932.
In addition to Falstaff and Escamillo, Rimini was admired for his portrayals of the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Iago in Verdi's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
, Amonasro in Verdi's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Renato in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tonio in Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
, Barnaba in Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
among others. In addition to frequently singing opposite his wife on the operatic and concert stage, Rimini also performed frequently with Amelita Galli-Curci
Amelita Galli-Curci
Amelita Galli-Curci was an Italian operatic soprano. She was one of the best-known coloratura singers of the early 20th century with her gramophone records selling in large numbers.-Early life:...
. The two of them sang their first Figaro and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia together with the Chicago Opera Company among many other performances.
Rimini and his wife both retired from the operatic stage in 1938, deciding to dedicate their time to teaching the next generation of opera singers. They opened a voice/opera school in Chicago which they ran for two decades. As a part of the school, students would travel to Italy with Rimini and his wife to study in Verona, often staying at their teacher's villa. Rimini and Raisa had one daughter, Rosa Guilietta Segala, who was born in July 1931.
Giacomo Rimini died on March 6, 1952 in his sleep at his home in Chicago.
Opera Recordings
- Falstaff in Verdi's FalstaffFalstaff (opera)Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
with Lorenzo MolajoliLorenzo MolajoliLorenzo Molajoli was an Italian opera conductor who was active in recording during the 1920s and 30s.The facts surrounding the career of the conductor Lorenzo Molajoli are obscure. He was born in Rome in 1868 and studied there at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia...
and La ScalaLa ScalaLa Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, originally recorded in 1932, Naxos label, current edition released on September 17, 2002, ASIN: B00006B1K9,
Other Recordings
- Opera in Chicago, Vol.2, Symposium label, released on January 14, 1997, ASIN: B000001XWZ. Rimini sings on only two tracks: an aria from Ambroise ThomasAmbroise ThomasCharles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
' HamletHamlet (opera)Hamlet is an opéra in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas, père and Paul Meurice of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.- Ophelia mania in Paris:...
and an aria from Verdi's Un Ballo In MascheraUn ballo in mascheraUn ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
. - Rosa Raisa Complete Recordings, Marston label, released August 11, 1998, ASIN: B00000AE0L. Rimini appears on over a dozen tracks singing works by Verdi, Mascagni, and Mozart.