Franco Corelli (Franco Corelli) |

Franco Corelli

He made his debut in 1951 (Spoleto, part of José). At the Florentine Spring festival in 1953 he sang the role of Pierre Bezukhov in the Italian premiere of Prokofiev’s War and Peace. Since 1954 at La Scala (debut as Licinius in Spontini’s Vestal), among the best roles on this stage are also Gualtiero in Bellini’s Pirate (1958), Polieuctus in Donizetti’s opera of the same name (1960, Callas was his partner in both productions) , Raoul in Meyerbeer’s Huguenots (1962). From 1957 he performed at Covent Garden (debut as Cavaradossi), from 1961 at the Metropolitan Opera (debut as Manrico). In the same year, he performed here with great success the part of Calaf (together with Nilson as Turandot), one of the best of his career (a live recording of this outstanding production was made at Memories).

In 1967 he sang the title role with Freni in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (Metropolitan Opera). Especially successfully Corelli performed heroic roles in operas of the Italian repertoire (Manrico, Calaf, Radamès, Andre Chenier in Giordano’s opera of the same name and others). Corelli is one of the most outstanding singers of the XNUMXth century, with a powerful voice. Many recordings include Andre Chénier (conductor Santini, EMI), Cavaradossi (conductor Kleva, Melodram), José (conductor Karajan, RCA Victor).

E. Tsodokov