Gino Bechi |

Gino Bechi

Born in Florence, where he studied vocals. Among his teachers are Raul Frazzi and Ferruccio Tagliavini. He made his debut on December 17, 1936 as Georges Germont (Verdi’s La Traviata) at the Tommaso Salvini Theater in Florence. He has performed on the largest opera stages in Italy, as well as in many cities of the world – in Lisbon, Alexandria, Cairo, Berlin and others. In 1940 he made his debut at La Scala in Verdi’s The Force of Destiny. On the stage of this theater, Becky also performed in Nabucco, Rigoletto, Othello, and Il trovatore.

The singer possessed not only a powerful voice of a huge range, unique in beauty and nobility of timbre, but he was also an outstanding dramatic artist, and, in addition, he was endowed with a happy appearance of a “public favorite”. Among the baritones who performed in the 1940s, he had practically no rivals.

Becky’s discography is relatively small. Among the best recordings are Rural Honor by Pietro Mascagni (1940, with L. Raza, B. Gigli, M. Marcucci and G. Simionato, conducted by the author), Un ballo in maschera (1943) and Aida (1946) by Giuseppe Verdi (both operas recorded with B. Gigli, M. Caniglia, conductor – Tullio Serafin, choir and orchestra of the Rome Opera).

In the 1940s and 50s, Becky starred in several musical films: Fugue for Two Voices (1942), Don Giovanni’s Secret (1947), Opera Madness (1948) and others.

On January 31, 1963, Becky retired from the opera stage, performing for the last time as Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Until the end of his life he worked as an opera director and teacher-repetiteur.