Piero Cappuccili |
Piero Cappuccili
Piero Cappuccili, “the prince of baritones,” as critics who love to label everything and everyone often called him, was born in Trieste on November 9, 1929, in the family of a naval officer. His father passed on to him a passion for the sea: the baritone who later became famous spoke with pleasure only about the great voices of the past and about his beloved motor boat. From a young age I thought about the career of an architect. Fortunately for us, my father did not interfere with the later desire to learn to sing. Piero studied under the guidance of Luciano Donaggio in his native city. He made his debut at the age of twenty-eight at the New Theater in Milan, as Tonio in Pagliacci. He won the prestigious national competitions in Spoleto and Vercelli – his career developed “as it should.” The debut at La Scala was not long in coming: in the 1963-64 season, Cappuccili performed on the stage of the famous theater as Count di Luna in Verdi’s Il trovatore. In 1969, he conquered America on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Thirty-six years, from the Milan debut to the tragic end of a career on the Milan-Venice motorway, were filled with triumphs. In the person of Cappuccili, the vocal art of the twentieth century received the ideal performer of the Italian music of the previous century – and above all the music of Verdi.
Unforgettable Nabucco, Charles V (“Ernani”), old Doge Foscari (“Two Foscari”), Macbeth, Rigoletto, Germont, Simon Boccanegra, Rodrigo (“Don Carlos”), Don Carlos (“Force of Destiny”), Amonasro, Iago , Cappuccili had above all a great, great voice. It is now that the reviewer often releases languid praises of not bad appearance, acting looseness, sense of humor, musicality of those who work on the opera stage, and all because the reviewer lacks the most important thing – his voice. It is not said about Cappuccili: it was a full, powerful voice, of a beautiful dark color, crystal clear. His diction became proverbial: the singer himself said that for him “to sing means to speak with singing.” Some reproached the singer for a lack of intelligence. Perhaps it would be more fair to speak of the elemental force, the spontaneity of his art. Cappuccili did not spare himself, did not save his energy: every time he went on stage, he generously endowed the audience with the beauty of his voice and the passion that he invested in the performance of roles. “I never had stage fright. The stage gives me pleasure,” he said.
He was not only a Verdi baritone. Excellent Escamillo in Carmen, Scarpia in Tosca, Tonio in Pagliacci, Ernesto in Pirate, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, De Sirier in Fedora, Gellner in Valli, Barnaba in Gioconda ”, Don Giovanni and Figaro in Mozart’s operas. Cappuccili was the favorite baritone of Claudio Abbado and Herbert von Karajan. At La Scala for twenty years he had no rivals.
It was rumored that he sang two hundred performances a year. Of course, this is an exaggeration. The artist himself totaled no more than eighty-five to ninety performances. Vocal endurance was his forte. Before the tragic incident, he maintained an excellent form.
Late in the evening of August 28, 1992, after a funeral at Nabucco, Cappuccili was driving along the autobahn, heading for Monte Carlo. The purpose of the trip is another meeting with the sea, which he, a native of Trieste, had in his blood. I wanted to spend a month in the company of my favorite motor boat. But not far from Bergamo, the singer’s car overturned, and he was thrown out of the passenger compartment. Cappuccili hit his head hard, but his life was not in danger. Everyone was sure that he would soon recover, but life judged otherwise. The singer remained in a semi-conscious state for a long time. He recovered a year later, but could not return to the stage. The star of the opera stage, Piero Cappuccili, ceased to shine in the opera firmament thirteen years before he left this world. The singer Cappuccili died – a vocal teacher was born.
Great Pierrot! You have no equal! Finishes career Renato Bruzon (who is already over seventy), still in brilliant shape Leo Nucci – at sixty-seven years old. It seems that after these two finish singing, what a baritone should be like will remain only memories.
