Giuseppe de Luca

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Giuseppe de Luca

Giuseppe De Luca (December 25 1876 – August 26 1950), was a prominent Italian

Italy

Baritone

Baritone is a type of European classical music male voice type that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice....
who achieved his greatest opera

Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
tic triumphs at the New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager and James Levine is music director....
.

De Luca was born in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. He studied in that city with two famous teachers, Venceslao Persichini and Antonio Cotogni, and made his debut at Piacenza

Piacenza

Piacenza is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza....
in 1897, singing Valentin in Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)

Faust is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French language libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carr? from Carr?'s play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Goethe's Faust Part One....
.

He appeared at La Scala

La Scala

The Teatro alla Scala , in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's most famous opera houses. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778, under the name Nuovo Regio Ducal Teatro alla Scala with Antonio Salieri Europa riconosciuta....
, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
, from 1902 to 1910, and made his London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
debut at the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building, often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", is the home of Royal Opera, London , Royal Ballet, London and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House....
, Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London, England, located on the easternmost parts of the City of Westminster and the southwest corner of the London Borough of Camden....
, in 1907.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Giuseppe de Luca'

Start a new discussion about 'Giuseppe de Luca'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Giuseppe De Luca (December 25 1876 – August 26 1950), was a prominent Italian

Italy

Baritone

Baritone is a type of European classical music male voice type that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice....
who achieved his greatest opera

Opera

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, Italy

Italy

Piacenza

La Scala

Milan

London

Royal Opera House

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London, England, located on the easternmost parts of the City of Westminster and the southwest corner of the London Borough of Camden....
, in 1907. He moved subsequently to America where he became the leading baritone at the Metropolitan Opera for 20 years, from 1915 to 1935. (He returned briefly to the house in 1939-1940.) After his retirement, he taught voice at the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located on the Upper West Side in New York City, is a performing arts music school. It is informally identified as simply Juilliard, and trains in dance, drama, and music....
. He died in New York

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
at the age of 73.

De Luca is notable for creating two important Puccini roles: Sharpless in Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa....
(La Scala, 1904) and the title role in Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi

Gianni Schicchi is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on a story that is referred to in Dante The Divine Comedy....
(Metropolitan, 1918). He also created the Marquess in Massenet's Grisélidis
Grisélidis

Gris?lidis is an opera in three acts and a prologue by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Armand Sylvestre and Eug?ne Morand. It is based on the play by the same authors, which itself is drawn from medieval tales....
, Michonnet in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the Play by Eug?ne Scribe and Ernest Legouv?....
, Gleby in Giordano

Umberto Giordano

Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples....
’s Siberia
Siberia (opera)

Opera in three acts by Umberto Giordano. Libretto by Luigi Illica. There is no direct source for the plot of Siberia and it is quite possible that this is an original work by Illica....
(1903), and Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spain author Miguel de Cervantes in 1602. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humor, ironic Spanish proverbs, and earthy wit....
in Massenet’s Don Quichotte
Don Quichotte

Don Quichotte is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Cain,Massenet's com?die-h?ro?que, like so many other versions of the story of Don Quixote, relates only indirectly to the great novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ....
opposite Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Chaliapin

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was the most famous Russian opera singer of the 20th century. The possesor of a large and expressive Bass voice, he is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form....
.

The illustrious conductor Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian people conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th Centuries, he was renowned for his brilliant intensity, his restless perfectionism, his phenomenal ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory....
is reputed to have called De Luca, "absolutely the best baritone I ever heard". Certainly, he was praised in a wide range of operatic roles, from buffo to bel canto

Bel Canto

Bel Canto may refer to:*Bel canto, a opera term that literally means "beautiful singing"*Bel Canto , a novel by Ann Patchett*Bel Canto , a Norwegian pop/electronica band...
to Verdi, with some early forays into Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
in his days at La Scala. He sang only in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
.

De Luca's voice and career are well-documented in numerous recordings which he made for the Fonotpia and Victor companies in Italy and America. On some of them, he is partnered by other great singers of the Met's golden age, including Enrico Caruso

Enrico Caruso

Enrico Caruso was an italians tenor. Caruso was also one of the most significant and renowned singers in any genre in both the 19th and 20th Centuries, and one of the most important pioneers of recorded music....
and Rosa Ponselle

Rosa Ponselle

Rosa Ponselle , was an American operatic soprano. She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered by music critics to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the past 100 years....
.

De Luca was renowned as a master of smooth-toned legato

Legato

In musical notation the Italian word legato indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence....
singing, and his recordings confirm his excellence in this regard. Being a small man, his voice was not of huge dimensions. But it had ample carrying power, was immaculately used and, during its prime, possessed exceptional beauty in the middle register. De Luca was a capable actor, too, especially in lively comic roles.