Fiorello Giraud (22 October 1870 – 28 March 1928)Staccioli (2001) gives his birth year as 1870. Steane (2008) gives it as 1868. was an Italian operatic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

who sang leading roles in many Italian opera houses during the course of his career, including

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, the

Teatro Regio di Parma Teatro Regio di Parma, originally constructed as the Nuovo Teatro Ducale (New Ducal Theatre),Martini, "Before the Teatro Regio", pp. 56 is an opera house and opera company in Parma, Italy. Replacing an obsolete house, the new Ducale achieved pro ...

, and the

Teatro Regio di Torino The Teatro Regio (Royal Theatre) is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each. Several bu ...

, as well as in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. He is remembered today for having created the role of Canio in the world premiere of Leoncavallo's ''

Pagliacci ''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, "Clowns") is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who m ...

''.

Life

Giraud was born in

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

, the son of the tenor Lodovico Giraud, and began studying singing with Barbacini at the Parma Conservatory. He made his stage debut in December 1891 at the Teatro Civico in

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in Germany, German Arthurian literature. The son of Percival, Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which fi ...

. The following year he sang Canio in the world premiere of ''

'' at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, a role which he sang many more times in his career. Most of his roles were in the

lyric tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widel ...

and spinto tenor Italian repertoire. However, later in his career his voice had become heavy enough to take on further Wagnerian roles such as Tristan in ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was compose ...

'', Walther in ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

'', and Siegfried in the first performance of ''

Götterdämmerung ' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as p ...

'' at La Scala. Steane, J.B (2008)
"Giraud, Fiorello"
in L. Macy (ed.) ''The Grove Book of Opera Singers'', p. 192. Oxford University Press After he retired from the stage, he taught singing in Parma where he died in 1928 at the age of 57.Staccioli, Roberto (2001)
"Giraud, Fiorello"
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Vol. 56.

Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language en ...

. Online version accessed 3 April 2013 .

Recordings

According to the Marston website (4):

References

4. https://www.marstonrecords.com/products/italian-tenors, accessed 26/4/2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Giraud, Fiorello Italian operatic tenors 1870 births 1928 deaths 19th-century Italian male opera singers Musicians from Parma