Kari Nurmela (born Viipuri May 26, 1933; died Helsinki January 21, 1984) was a Finnish dramatic

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 ...

of note. Born in Viipuri,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, Nurmela made his operatic debut as the Conte di Luna, in ''Il trovatore'', at Helsinki, in 1961. He went on to appear at Prague, Marseille, Nancy, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Palermo, Venice, Trieste, Lisbon, Geneva, Zurich, Seattle, and San Diego, as well as the Festival at Orange. He was heard in the leading baritone roles of ''Curlew River'', ''Don Pasquale'', ''Roberto Devereux'', ''Pagliacci'' (as Tonio), ''Cavalleria rusticana'', ''L'Orfeo'', ''Don Giovanni'', ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (as the Conte Almaviva), ''La bohème'', ''Madama Butterfly'', ''Il tabarro'', ''Tosca'', ''Elektra'', ''Un ballo in maschera'', ''Don Carlos'', ''Ernani'', ''Falstaff'' (as Ford), ''La forza del destino'', ''Nabucco'', ''Otello'', ''La traviata'', ''Tannhäuser'', etc. In 1976, for RAI, Nurmela sang in ''Katerina Ismailova'', with Gloria Lane and William Cochran, conducted by

Yuri Ahronovich Yuri Mikhaylovich Ahronovitch (Юрий Михайлович Аронович) (13 May 193231 October 2002) was a Soviet-born Israeli conductor. Born in Leningrad, he studied music and the violin from the age of 4. In 1954 he graduated as cond ...

. In 1979, he recorded, for

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, Tonio in ''Pagliacci'', opposite

Renata Scotto Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director. Recognized for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation. Since r ...

José Carreras Josep Maria Carreras Coll (; born 5 December 1946), better known as José Carreras (, ), is a Spanish operatic tenor who is particularly known for his performances in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. Born in Barcelona, he made his de ...

, and Sir

Thomas Allen Thomas Allen may refer to: Clergy *Thomas Allen (nonconformist) (1608–1673), Anglican/nonconformist priest in England and New England *Thomas Allen (dean of Chester) (died 1732) *Thomas Allen (scholar) (1681–1755), Anglican priest in England * ...

, under the bâton of

Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He currently holds two music directorships, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale ...

. Kari Nurmela unexpectedly succumbed to cerebral bleeding, in Helsinki, Finland.

External links

* .

References

* ''Who's Who in Opera'', edited by Maria F. Rich, Arno Press, 1976. 1930 births 1984 deaths 20th-century Finnish male opera singers Operatic baritones {{finland-opera-singer-stub