![Giuseppe Anselmi 1907](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Giuseppe_Anselmi_1907.jpg)
Antonio Giuseppe Anselmi (6 November 1876,
Nicolosi
Nicolosi ( scn, Niculùsi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about northwest of Catania.
Nicolosi borders the following municipalities: Adra ...
- 27 May 1929,
Zoagli
Zoagli ( lij, Zoagi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about southeast of Genoa. Zoagli is a popular destination during all seasons of the year by tourists from all over the wo ...
) was an Italian operatic
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 wide ...
. He became famous throughout Europe during the first decade of the 20th century for his stylish performances of lyric roles. He never sang in the United States.
Life and career
Anselmi came from the Catania area on the east coast of Sicily. He studied violin and piano at the Naples Conservatory as a teenager, and then joined an
operetta troupe with which he toured Italy and the Middle East. The music publisher
Giulio Ricordi
Giulio Ricordi (19 December 1840 in Milan – 6 June 1912 in Milan) was an Italian editor and musician who joined the family firm, the Casa Ricordi music publishing house, in 1863, then run by his father, Tito, the son of the company's founder ...
allegedly heard him and advised him to undergo vocal instruction with
Luigi Mancinelli, one of Italy's leading conductors.
According to some sources, Anselmi's first appearance on stage in an operatic role happened as early as 1896, when he sang
Turiddu (''Cavalleria rusticana'') in Greece. His Italian operatic debut took place in Genoa in 1900, and his career took off quickly from there. He appeared initially at the
Teatro San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...
, Naples, in late December of that year and, in 1901, at the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...
,
Covent Garden, London. Engagements at
La Scala, Milan, and the Monte-Carlo Opera ensued in 1904 and 1908, respectively. He was much admired at the
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...
in Buenos Aires, and also sang in Brussels, Berlin and Vienna prior to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
His greatest triumphs, however, occurred in the cities of St Petersburg (often opposite
Lina Cavalieri
Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri (25 December 1874 – 7 February 1944) was an Italian operatic dramatic soprano, actress, and monologist.
Biography
Lina Cavalieri was born on Christmas Day at Viterbo, some north of Rome. She lost her parents at the ...
), Warsaw and, in particular, Madrid, where he even eclipsed the famous tenor
Enrico Caruso in popularity.
Although his style of singing was not liked at first by the London critics, he soon became a favorite with audiences in the British capital, and he sang intermittently at Covent Garden until 1909.
Anselmi's operatic career tailed off at the end of World War I; his last known appearances occurred in 1918. He spent his remaining years teaching and composing in Italy. Anselmi died in 1929 of pneumonia, at Zoagli in the Italian province of Liguria. He had retained a deep affection for Madrid, and he bequeathed his heart to that city, where it was exhibited inside an urn at the
Teatro Real
The Teatro Real (Royal Theatre) is an opera house in Madrid, Spain. Located at the Plaza de Oriente, opposite the Royal Palace, and known colloquially as ''El Real'', it is considered the top institution of the performing and musical arts in the ...
museum.
Voice and recordings
![Giuseppe Anselmi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Giuseppe_Anselmi.jpg)
Commentators often describe Anselmi (and his famous contemporary
Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci (February 10, 1870 – August 9, 1940) was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the ''bel canto'' repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La S ...
) as being among the last exponents of the old ''
bel canto'' method of Italian singing, which was largely supplanted in Italy during the early 1900s by a more forceful mode of vocalism associated with
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's music dramas and
verismo opera
In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini.
''Verismo'' as an ...
.
Anselmi was a good-looking man with an arresting stage presence, which made him extremely popular with many opera-goers. He was sometimes referred to as ''Il tenore di donne'' (the tenor of/for women) which apparently had a double meaning; details of his personal life have never emerged.
He possessed a sweet-toned if rather throaty and fluttery lyric tenor voice, which he employed with memorable grace and elegance. Anselmi was noted for his performances as
Almaviva and
Don Ottavio, but he also excelled in the roles of Edgardo, Ernesto (in ''
Don Pasquale
''Don Pasquale'' () is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi's ...
''),
Duca di Mantua,
Alfredo
Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name.
People with the given name include:
* Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda F ...
,
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
,
Enzo
Enzo is an Italian given name derivative of the German name Heinz. It can be used also as the short form for Lorenzo, Vincenzo, Innocenzo, or Fiorenzo. It is most common in the Romance-speaking world, particularly in Italy and Latin Americ ...
,
Cavaradossi,
Loris
Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine mammals of the subfamily Lorinae (sometimes spelled Lorisinae) in the family Lorisidae. ''Loris'' is one genus in this subfamily and includes the slender lorises, ''Nycticebus'' is the genus conta ...
and
Lensky, among others.
Anselmi recorded for
Fonotipia Records in Milan (1907-1910), with excerpts from ''Don Pasquale'', ''Rigoletto'', ''Pagliacci'', ''Fedora'', ''Werther'', ''Manon'', ''Luisa Miller'', ''Les pêcheurs de perles'', ''Don Giovanni'', ''Cavalleria rusticana'', ''Mignon'', ''L'elisir d'amore'', ''Roméo et Juliette'', ''La bohème'', ''La Gioconda'', ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'', ''Tosca'', ''Iris'', ''Carmen'', ''Manon Lescaut'', ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', ''Eugene Onegin'', ''Lucrezia Borgia'', ''Manru'' (of Paderewski), ''La favorite'', ''Mefistofele'', ''Marcella'', ''Così fan tutte'', ''Martha'', ''Il duca d'Alba'', ''Le maschere'', "Stabat mater" (of Pergolesi), Verdi Requiem, ''Serse'', ''Aida'', ''L'africaine'', ''La traviata'', ''Gitana'', and various songs; and
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important player in the early recording industry.
The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by Edison's found ...
in London (1913), with excerpts from ''Pagliacci'', ''La Gioconda'', ''La favorite'', ''Les pêcheurs de perles'', ''L'africaine'', ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', ''Mignon'', and ''Cavalleria rusticana''.
Sources
* ''Le guide de l'opéra, les indispensables de la musique'', R. Mancini & J-J. Rouvereux (Fayard, 1986),
* ''The Record of Singing'', Michael Scott (Duckworth, 1977)
* ''The Grand Tradition'',
J.B. Steane (Duckworth, 1974)
* ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' (Second Edition), Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack (Oxford University Press, 1980)
* ''The Record Collector'', April 1987.
External links
* The Giuseppe Anselmi Appreciation Societ
History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anselmi, Giuseppe
Italian operatic tenors
1876 births
1929 deaths
Fonotipia Records artists
Musicians from the Province of Catania
19th-century Italian male opera singers