Vittorio Pandano

Vittorio Pandano was born in Ravenna in 1919 and died there on October 5th, 2010. He started as a comprimario. He studied with Amedeo Bassi and further on with Emilio Ghirardini, the first teacher of Gianni Poggi. He made his debut in 1943 in Firenze as Cassio with Pertile and Stabile. After this start, he sang primo tenore roles for six or seven years (Alfredo, Pinkerton, Rodolfo – also with Bastianini as Colline! –, Cavaradossi replacing Malipiero...). He was much appreciated. In the early 50s, Carlo Tagliabue recommended him to switch to ruoli di fianco where his musical and acting skills could show to better advantage (without mentioning that at that time, competitors, for a tenor with a relatively small voice, were a quite tough business...). He followed this recommendation and he became one of the most requested comprimario tenors of his age. Particularly, he was one of the favourite singers of the great conductor Oliviero De Fabritiis. He retired in 1976, singing Malatestino. Pandano had a repertoire of all the major comprimario roles (including Shujskij and the Simpleton in Boris or rare operas like Cagliostro by Pizzetti or Wozzeck, which Pandano sang at the Italian première with Gobbi and Mitropoulos). He was considered a specialist of Goro and Dr. Cajus.
Paolo Cavassini

I would like to thank Paolo Cavassini for the recordings.

I wish to thank Vittorio Pandano for the additional pictures (bottom 2).