Giulio Crimi

He made his debut at the Teatro Bellini, again in Catania, on November 30th, 1911, in Cavalleria rusticana, in a charity performance for the Italian Red Cross in order to support the victims of the war in Libya. The next year, he sang La Wally in Treviso and Fanciulla del West and Manon Lescaut both in Verona and Palermo, then Isabeau, Carmen and L'amore dei tre re (by Montemezzi) in Milano (the source doesn't state at which theater). The latter opera was a particular success for Crimi, which he repeated in 1914 at the Covent Garden Opera and in Paris. 1916 won him important triumphs: first, he was in Madrid for several operas, among which Cavalleria rusticana and Mefistofele, Paolo e Francesca (by Luigi Mancinelli) and Francesca da Rimini (by Riccardo Zandonai); then, La Scala called him to sing La battaglia di Legnano with Rosa Raisa. With Raisa, he set sail for America: Aida, Chénier and Pagliacci at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires were followed by Traviata with Amelita Galli-Curci in Chicago, where he also sang in Les huguenots and Lucia di Lammermoor; in 1918, he arrived at the Met for a whole season, singing in Tosca, Aida, Bohème, Carmen, Gianni Schicchi and Il tabarro (the two latter New York premieres, with Claudia Muzio and Luigi Montesanto).

For the following years, the chronicle is less complete; anyway, he sang again in Buenos Aires, in Catania, in Rome. He added to his versatile repertory Il trovatore, Zazà, La forza del destino, Madama Butterfly, Loreley, L'Africaine. He was a prototypical singer of the verismo age, and had a reputation as a thrilling performer.

He concluded his career as early as December 31st, 1927, with Francesca da Rimini at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova (conducted by the composer, and with Carmelo Maugeri in the cast, who had also sung in Crimi's debut performance in 1911) – he is said to have had health issues due to high blood pressure, but obviously, he had also vocal problems (not a big surprise, given his not very subtle technique!).

He lived in Rome thereafter, teaching; his most famous pupil was Tito Gobbi. Crimi died on October 28th, 1939.