Giulio Neri (May 21, 1909,
SienaSiena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.- History :...
- April 21, 1958, Rome) was an Italian operatic bass, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
Neri studied first in
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
with Ferraresi, and completed his studies in Rome. He made his stage debut in 1935, at the Teatro delle Quattro Fontane in Rome, where he sang mostly
comprimarioA Comprimario is a supporting role in an opera. Derived from the Italian "con primario", or "with the primary", the term refers to a performer who sings small role pieces....
roles. He then joined the Rome Opera in 1938, where he quickly established himself as one of the leading basses of his generation.
He sang throughout Italy, making his
La 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 Theatre of La Scala La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally...
debut in 1941.
Giulio Neri (May 21, 1909,
SienaSiena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.- History :...
- April 21, 1958, Rome) was an Italian operatic bass, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
Neri studied first in
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
with Ferraresi, and completed his studies in Rome. He made his stage debut in 1935, at the Teatro delle Quattro Fontane in Rome, where he sang mostly
comprimarioA Comprimario is a supporting role in an opera. Derived from the Italian "con primario", or "with the primary", the term refers to a performer who sings small role pieces....
roles. He then joined the Rome Opera in 1938, where he quickly established himself as one of the leading basses of his generation.
He sang throughout Italy, making his
La 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 Theatre of La Scala La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally...
debut in 1941. After the war he began appearing abroad, notably at the
Royal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal...
in London, the Liceo in Barcelona, the Munich State Opera, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, etc.
He sang most of the great bass roles in opera by Verdi and some Wagner, such as
SparafucileRigoletto 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...
,
FerrandoIl trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Leone Emanuele Bardare and Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
,
FiescoSimon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
,
Padre GuardianoLa forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro, o La fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
, Grand Inquisitore,
RamfisAida 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...
,
King HeinrichLohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
,
King MarkeTristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg...
,
GurnemanzParsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail....
, etc. Other notable roles included;
OrovesoNorma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the Bel canto tradition...
,
AlviseLa Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835....
and
MefistofeleMefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito....
, one of his greatest roles.
Neri had a dark, powerful, cavernous voice and a strong stage presence. He can be heard in several recordings he made for
CetraCetra Records was an Italian record company which produced opera recordings with artists such as Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Rolando Panerai, Giuseppe Taddei and many more famous artists...
, notably
La FavoriteLa favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
,
RigolettoRigoletto 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...
,
Don Carlo,
AidaAida 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...
,
La GiocondaLa Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835....
, and
MefistofeleMefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito....
. He also appeared in a film version of
Rigoletto, opposite
Tito Gobbi-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi , a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome. He made his operatic debut in Gubbio in 1935 as Count Rudolfo in Bellini's...
, in 1946.
He died suddenly of a heart attack, one month short of his 49th birthday.
Sources
- The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta, James Anderson, (Wings Books, 1993) ISBN 0-517-09156-9
- The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera, edited by Paul Gruber, (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993) ISBN 0-393-03444-5