The tenor Giuseppe Giacomini died July 28 at the age of 80 in the town of Veggiano (Padua), where he was born on Sept. 7, 1940. Giacomini specialized in the verismo and dramatic repertoire and had great success in roles such as Otello, Don Alvaro, Radamès, Calaf, Poliione, Andrea Chénier and Canio.
La Scala in Milan, the San Carlo in Naples, the Liceu in Barcelona, the National Theatre in Munich, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera and Covent Garden in London as well as the Metropolitan in New York were some of the stages on which his brilliant career unfolded.
Giacomini possessed a particularly thick, dark, powerful and ringing tone that made him one of the most important Italian tenors of the 20th century.
Here is Giacomini singing “Nessun dorma,” the celebrated aria from Puccini’s Turandot, in Moscow in 1989. This encore was preceded by a five-minute standing ovation.
Here Giacomini sings the duet “Si, pel ciel” from Verdi’s Otello with baritone Sherrill Milnes under the baton of Anton Guadagno.
