Umberto Borsò
|
I wish to thank Daniele Godor for the recordings (Pagliacci, Cavalleria rusticana). I wish to thank Daniele Godor & William Hogarth for the recordings (Il trovatore). I wish to thank Georges Cardol for the recording (Otello). I wish to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recording (Duo Piccolo Marat, Aida). Borsò grew up in Castelfiorentino. His father died when he was 14, so he moved to Pisa and worked at a scooter factory. Because he was active in the trade union after WWII, he got fired, and so he resumed his earlier vocal studies with Vera Amerigi Rutili, and made his debut in 1952 in Spoleto as Don Alvaro. His immediate success earned him contracts in Torino, Venice, Palermo, and in Rome, where he sang in May 1953 for the first time (in the world premiere of Medea by Pietro Canonica), and where he would spend a considerable part of his career. The second city where he appeared very often, from 1953 to 1973, was Amsterdam. His definitive breakthrough came in May 1956, when he replaced Mario Del Monaco as Andrea Chénier in Rome, with Renata Tebaldi and Giuseppe Taddei. La forza del destino – Spoleto, Teatro Sperimentale, 3 September 1952 Medea (Pietro Canonica, composer) – Roma, Teatro dell'Opera, 12 May 1953 Cavalleria rusticana – Chieti, 11 June 1953 Manon Lescaut – Enna, Teatro Castello di Lombardia, 18 September 1953 Macbeth – Amsterdam, Concerthall, November 1953 Tosca – Castelfiorentino, del Popolo. 20 January 1954 Aida – Cairo, dell'Opera, 25 February 1954 Andrea Chénier – Ancona, della Pessa, 15 August 1954 La fanciulla del West – Catania, Bellini, 11 November 1954 Il trovatore – Valencia, Opera, 29 November 1954 Pagliacci – Valencia, Opera, December 1954 Carmen – Melbourne, 9 June 1955 Turandot – Sydney, 13 September 1955 Adriana Lecouvreur – Brescia, Grande, 22 January 1956 La campana sommersa (Respighi, composer) – RAI, 7 May 1956 Lodoletta – Spoleto, Sperimentale, 3 September 1956 Lucia di Lammermoor – Torino, 3 November 1856 Simon Boccanegra – Roma, dell'Opera, 8 January 1957 Don Carlos – Enna, Castello di Lombardia, 9 July 1957 Mosè – Roma, dell'Opera, 12 January 1959 La Gioconda – Napoli, Arena Flegrea, 5 July 1959 Iris – Napoli, San Carlo, 6 January 1960 La Wally – Trapani, Teatro Luglio Musicale, 12 July 1960 Madama Butterfly – Vigo, Teatro Garcia Barbón, 25 August 1960 Norma – Dublin, Gaiety, 4 April 1961 Guglielmo Tell – Roma, Caracalla, 2 September 1961 Boris Godunov – Messico, Bellas Artes, 8 August 1961 Un ballo in maschera – New Orleans, Opera, 5 October 1961 La bohème – Guadalajara, Opera, 17 October 1961 Il piccolo Marat – Livorno, Goldoni, 26 October 1961 Ernani – New York, Met, 8 November 1962 Lohengrin – Pisa, Verdi, 7 March 1963 La traviata – Mannheim, Staatsoper, 12 May 1963 Roméo et Juliette – RAI, 19 June 1964 Il pirata – Catania, Bellini, 29 February 1964 Otello – Rijeka, 6 November 1965 Rigoletto – Barletta, Castello Svevo, 10 September 1966 Samson et Dalila – Zagreb, Narodno Kazalište, 10 December 1966 Oluja (Šulek, composer) – Zagreb, Narodno Kazalište, 28 November 1969 Fedora – Siena, dei Rinnovati, 13 December 1969 Il giuramento – Bari, Petruzzelli, 9 February 1970 Monte Ivnor (Rocca, composer) – Catania, Bellini, 27 February 1970 Paganetta (Salines, composer) – Carrara, Verdi, 6 May 1975 Il tabarro – Trapani, Luglio Trapanese, 12 July 1975 Il sangue e la rosa (Scarfeo, composer) – Trapani, Luglio Trapanese, 16 July 1975 Reference: Gino Dell'Ira Il firmamento lirico pisano, Grafica Zannini, Pisa 1983 |