Born July 9th, 1938 in Adria, his real name was Giorgio Casellato; so as not to be mixed
up with his slightly elder (and totally unrelated) tenor colleague Renzo
Casellato (born 1936), he added his grandmother's name and became Giorgio Casellato-Lamberti, only
to drop "Casellato" another few years later.
He studied in Bolzano, Naples, Venice, and with Ettore Campogalliani in Mantova. He made his debut in Rome in 1964 as
Arrigo; a good career at the large Italian theaters ensued. His definitive breakthrough came in 1970,
when he stepped in for Franco Corelli as José at the Arena di Verona.
Internationally, he had already made his Chicago debut in 1965 (Radames); in 1974, he was at the Met for the first time
(Cavaradossi), where he was to spend five seasons in a row. 1979 saw his Covent Garden debut (Don Carlo), 1987 Deutsche Oper
Berlin and Luxor (Radames, in both cases), 1988 Stuttgart (Andrea Chénier), 1991 Munich (Puccini's des Grieux). He
retired in 1996.
Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens; reference 2 and picture source: Lamberti's website
