Achille De Bassini (5 May 1819 – 3 July 1881) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

, particularly noted for his performances in

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's operas. He created the roles of Francesco Foscari in '' I due Foscari'' (1844), Pasha Seid in ''

Il corsaro ''Il corsaro'' (''The Corsair'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, from a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on Lord Byron's 1814 poem '' The Corsair''. The first performance was given at the Teatro Grande in Trieste on 25 Octob ...

'' (1848), Miller in ''

Luisa Miller ''Luisa Miller'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''Kabale und Liebe'' (''Intrigue and Love'') by the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller. Verdi's initial idea for ...

'' (1849) and Fra Melitone in '' La forza del destino'' (1862). Bassini was born and studied in Milan, and is thought to have made his début at

Voghera The Castle of Voghera in a 19th-century etching. Voghera ( Vogherese dialect of Emilian: ''Vughera''; Latin: ''Forum Iulii Iriensium'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy. The population was 39,374 ...

in 1837 in the title role of

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style duri ...

's '' Belisario''. Although he had a talent for portraying noble, suffering characters, Verdi also recognized his capacity for humorous roles and wrote the character of Fra Melitone specifically for him. He sang throughout Italy and from 1852 to 1863 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

as well. He made his London debut in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

in 1859. De Bassini was married to the soprano

Rita Gabussi Rita Gabussi (1822 – after 1860) was an Italian soprano. Gabussi was born in Bologna and studied under Bertinotti in Milan. She sang in 1842 the main role of ''Nina pazza per amore'' by Pietro Antonio Coppola, performed at the Teatro del Re, M ...

. Their son, Alberto De Bassini, was also an opera singer, first as a tenor, and later as a baritone. Achille died, aged 62, at

Cava de' Tirreni Cava de' Tirreni (; Cilentan: ''A Càva'') is a city and '' comune'' in the region of Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, northwest of the town of Salerno. It lies in a richly cultivated valley surrounded by wooded hills, and is a p ...

Sources

*J. Warrack and E. West, 'De Bassini, Achille', ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1992. *

Francesco Regli Francesco Regli (1802–1866) was an Italian writer best known today for his extensive biographical dictionary which chronicled the lives and careers of prominent figures in the performing arts in Italy from 1800 to 1860. Described as a "polygraph ...

,
Dizionario biografico dei più celebri poeti ed artisti melodrammatici
', E. Dalmazzo, 1860, pp. 151–152 Italian operatic baritones 1819 births 1881 deaths Singers from Milan 19th-century Italian male opera singers {{Italy-opera-singer-stub