Argentinean tenor. He was born in Córdoba on 10 January 1923. He went to school at the Instituto San José
in his native city, and he was noted for his vocal endowment that allowed him to sing in the chorus of the
institute. Later on he studied at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and obtained a diploma as a civil engineer.
His first activities in opera were as a comprimario tenor at the Teatro del Libertador in Córdoba.
There he sang Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1958, with soprano Alicia Allerand and tenor
Bruno Landi, conducted by Reinaldo Zamboni.
He moved to Buenos Aires to study singing with Mario Melani, Primavera de Sivieri and Angel Celega.
Liborio Simonella made his debut as first tenor rather late in life. He was 44 years old. His
debut took place at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires, on 24 November 1967, as Roberto in Puccini's
Le villi. It was the first time the opera was staged in Argentina. The other seasoned artists in the
cast were the soprano Matilde de Lupka and the baritone Gian Piero Mastromei, conductor Juan Emilio Martini.
He sang the three performances of the opera on 24, 26 and 28 November.
He became sort of a "house tenor" at the Teatro Colón and he sang in the following years:
1970
Lucrezia by Ottorino Respighi (role: Collatino)
1972
Tosca (role: Cavaradossi)
1973
Medea by Claudio Guido-Drei, world premiere (role: Jasón)
La bohème (role: Rodolfo)
1974
La bohème (role: Rodolfo)
Cavalleria rusticana (role: Turiddu)
El matrero by Felipe Boero (role: Pedro Cruz)
1975
Madama Butterfly (role: Pinkerton)
El matrero (role: Pedro Cruz)
Tosca (role: Cavaradossi)
Andrea Chénier (role: Chénier)
Elektra (role: Aegisth)
Boris Godunov (role: Dmitrij)
1976
Carmen (role: Don José)
La vida breve (role: Paco)
1977
Aida (role: Radames)
1978
Tosca (role: Cavaradossi)
Ollantay by Constantino Gaito (role: Ollantay)
1979
Bodas de sangre by Juan José Castro (role: Leonardo)
1982
Un ballo in maschera (role: Riccardo)
Khovanshchina (role: Golitsyn)
La bohème by Leoncavallo (role: Marcello)
1983
Aida (role: Radames)
Aurora by Héctor Panizza (role: Mariano)
1984
Madama Butterfly (role: Pinkerton)
Vojna i mir/War and peace (role: Pierre Bezukhov)
1985
Boris Godunov (role: Dmitrij)
Norma (role: Pollione)
La forza del destino (role: Don Alvaro)
Carmen (role: Don José)
1986
La fanciulla del West (role: Dick Johnson)
1987
Otello (role: Otello)
1988
Nabucco (role: Ismaele)
1989
Aida (role: Radames)
1990
Aida (role: Radames)
1992
Pagliacci (role: Canio)
(It is strange but his name does not appear in the 1968, 1969, 1971, 1980, 1981 and 1991 seasons.)
"We remember very well the warm reception given by the public to the young singer from Córdoba.
He overcame all the problems of making a debut at the Colón and left an unsurpassable impression
with his sound and vibrant voice and an ease in his high register not frequently found among our
scarce tenors." (Enzo Valenti Ferro in his book
"Las voces Teatro Colón 1908–1982" (Buenos Aires, 1983)
On 18 November 1990, he sang Otello at the Teatro Argentino in La Plata with María Rosa Farré and Ricardo Yost.
The evening celebrated the centenary of the theater, and as it had been destroyed by a fire,
the performance took place on the stage of the former Cinema Rocha.
Simonella sang in the most important Argentinean cities like Córdoba, Rosario, Tucumán and Mendoza.
Though his most frequent stage was that of the Teatro Colón, he sang in other South American countries.
He appeared in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in 1971 in the title role of Les contes d'Hoffmann, and in 1978 he sang at
the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, for the first time in his career, the title role in Verdi's Otello,
with Jeannette Pilou, Nelson Portella and under the baton of Antonio Tauriello (8, 11, 14, 16 and 19 July).
He visited Chile on three occasions to sing at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago. In 1984, he was Samson
in Samson et Dalila. In 1990, he sang Canio in Pagliacci (one of his most successful and celebrated roles),
and for the last time in 1992 Foresto in Attila. In October 1991 he sang in Lima (Perú) in Pagliacci,
obtaining a triumph as Canio, in spite of his age.
The German movie director Werner Herzog invited him to sing in his film Fitzcarraldo
(1982). He acted and sang there "A te, o cara" from I puritani, with Isabel Jiménez de
Cisneros, Cristina Montilla and the Spanish baritone Jesús Goiri. It was his only appearance in a movie.
On 9 July 1989 he participated in a gala performance at the Teatro Colón, singing the second scene
from the second act of Aida with Mabel Veleris, Nelibel Martínez, Ricardo Yost,
Omar Brandan, Giannantonio Verlato and conductor Pedro Ignacio Calderón. The concert
was televised and now we can see and hear Simonella on Youtube. (It is a pity that
Simonella did not make any commercial recordings).
In the last years of his career he had to sing the role of Radames in Aida at the Teatro Colón – without rehearsals. The
German tenor Walter Donati had been engaged but did not arrive to Buenos Aires.
Therefore, Simonella successfully sang the six scheduled performances in September 1990.
The last performance he sang at the Colón was on 21 July 1992. He sang Pagliacci with María Rosa Ferré,
Luis Gaeta, Gustavo Gibert and the conductor Reinaldo Censabella.
We believe that Simonella sang more than 150 performances only at the Teatro Colón, but besides the
South American countries already mentioned, it is said that he also sang in Europe and South Africa.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any reference for those performances.
After his stage career, he appeared in some concerts at the Salón Dorado of the Teatro Colón, and he was also invited
to participate as a jury member in musical contests.
In the 1990s he was appreciated as a singing teacher in Buenos Aires. Among his many pupils the most famous,
undoubtedly, has been the tenor Marcelo Álvarez (also he was born in Córdoba, on
27 February 1962), considered one of the best international lyrical tenors of his generation.
During the last years of his life, Simonella suffered from Parkinson's disease and retired to his home town,
Córdoba, where he died alone and forgotten on 7 July 2007, at 84 years old.
