Italo Gardoni

Gardoni studied at the Parma conservatory and made his debut, very young, in 1840 in Viadana as Roberto Devereux. The same year, he was already in Torino and in Berlin (where he sang Rodrigo to Rubini's Otello in Rossini's opera). Via Milano, Brescia, and Berlin again, he came to Paris probably in 1843, where he sang a lot at the Opéra, and later (from 1847 to 1874!) even more at the Théâtre-Italien.

The second center of his career, where he sang from 1847 to 1874, as well, and very regularly, was London (His Majesty's Theater, Lyceum and Covent Garden); his first impresario there was Benjamin Lumley, and later he was closely connected to James H. Mapleson (whose voice teacher Gardoni also was). For guest appearances, he traveled to St. Petersburg, Rome, Madrid and Amsterdam. He was one of the major tenor stars of his time.

Gardoni's voice wasn't big, but limpid and very well-projected; he was a purely lyrical tenor capable of coloratura, and disposed of an excellent top. His repertory consisted thus mainly of roles like Elvino, Arturo, Fernand, Comte Ory, Don Ottavio, Tamino, Corentin (Dinorah), Danilowitz (L'étoile du nord), Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride), Percy (Anna Bolena), Edgardo, Gennaro, Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), (), Vincent, Faust, Alfredo, Nemorino, Almaviva; but he also sang (with lesser success) Robert le diable and Pollione. World premieres in which he took part included Marie Stuart by Lous Niedermeyer as Bothwell (Paris, 6 December 1844), L'étoile de Séville by Balfe as Don Sanche (Paris, 17 December 1845), La tempesta by Halévy as Fernando (London, 8 June 1850) and Verdi's Masnadieri as Carlo Moor (London, 22 July 1847). He was particularly connected to Balfe, under whose baton he often sang; he also appeared in Balfe's opera I quattro figli.

Reference 1; reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens; reference 3