Alessandro Bonci
Encyclopedia
Alessandro Bonci 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 Scala
and London's Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
.
, Romagna
, Bonci started out as an apprentice shoemaker. He secured a music scholarship to the Rossini Conservatory
in Pesaro
, working for five years with Carlo Pedrotti
(the teacher of the heroic tenor Francesco Tamagno
) and then Felice Coen. He also had private singing lessons in Paris
with the retired baritone
Enrico Delle Sedie
.
Alessandro Bonci made his debut in Parma
in 1896, singing the role of Fenton in Giuseppe Verdi
's Falstaff
at the Teatro Regio
. Before the end of his first season he was engaged to sing at La Scala
, Milan
, where he debuted in Vincenzo Bellini
's I Puritani
. Appearances elsewhere in Europe followed, including at London
's Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
. He first sang at Covent Garden in 1900 and he would return there in 1903 and 1907-08.
On December 3, 1906, Bonci made his American
debut with the Manhattan Opera Company
in New York City
; again the opera was I Puritani. He stayed two seasons with the company, becoming a popular competitor to Enrico Caruso, who was the rival Metropolitan Opera
's major drawcard. Bonci himself joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1908 and, in 1914, the Chicago Opera. He also made a transcontinental tour of America in 1910-11, giving song recital
s.
Bonci served in the Italian army during World War I
, returning to America to tour for three seasons after the end of the conflict. He appeared again at the Metropolitan Opera, and sang in Chicago
during the 1920-21 season. In 1922 and 1923 he served as the principal tenor of the Teatro Costanzi in Rome
and conducted master class
es across the United States the following year. After 1925, Bonci entered into partial retirement, devoting himself primarily to teaching in Milan. He still sang occasionally in public as late as 1935. He died in Viserba, Rimini, in 1940, at the age of 70.
companies. His first recordings were made in 1905 and his last in 1926, with a handful produced between these dates (in 1913). On them, he is heard to best advantage in operatic arias by Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti and Gluck, but he was also renowned in Europe and the United States for his Rodolfo in Puccini's La boheme
, his Riccardo in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
and his Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto
.
.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
known internationally for his association with the bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, Milan's La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
and London's Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House 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 of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
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 site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
.
Career
A native of CesenaCesena
Cesena is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini, on the Savio River, co-chief of the Province of Forlì-Cesena. It is at the foot of the Apennines, and about 15 km from the Adriatic Sea.-History:Cesena was originally an Umbrian...
, Romagna
Romagna
Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...
, Bonci started out as an apprentice shoemaker. He secured a music scholarship to the Rossini Conservatory
Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini"
The Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini" is a music conservatory in Pesaro, Italy. Founded in 1869 with a legacy from the composer Gioachino Rossini, the conservatory officially opened in 1882 with 67 students and was then known as the Liceo musicale Rossini...
in Pesaro
Pesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
, working for five years with Carlo Pedrotti
Carlo Pedrotti
Carlo Pedrotti was an Italian conductor, administrator and composer, principally of opera. An associate of Giuseppe Verdi's, he also taught two internationally renowned Italian operatic tenors, Francesco Tamagno and Alessandro Bonci.-Early life:Pedrotti was born in Verona, where he studied music...
(the teacher of the heroic tenor Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno was an operatic tenor from Italy who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he cemented his place in musical history by creating the role of Otello in Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece of the same name...
) and then Felice Coen. He also had private singing lessons in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with the retired baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Enrico Delle Sedie
Enrico Delle Sedie
Enrico Augusto Delle Sedie was an Italian operatic baritone who sang extensively in Europe, performing the bel canto repertoire and in works by Verdi....
.
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
in 1896, singing the role of Fenton in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
at the Teatro Regio
Teatro Regio di Parma
Teatro Regio di Parma is a famous 19th century opera house and opera company in Parma, Italy. The theatre was originally known as the Teatro Ducale....
. Before the end of his first season he was engaged to sing at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, where he debuted in Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's I Puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
. Appearances elsewhere in Europe followed, including at London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House 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 of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
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 site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. He first sang at Covent Garden in 1900 and he would return there in 1903 and 1907-08.
On December 3, 1906, Bonci made his American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
debut with the Manhattan Opera Company
Manhattan Opera Company
The Manhattan Opera Company was an opera company based in New York City. Active from 1906 until 1910, it was founded by Oscar Hammerstein I.The company began operations in 1906 at the Manhattan Opera House on 34th Street in New York City...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; again the opera was I Puritani. He stayed two seasons with the company, becoming a popular competitor to Enrico Caruso, who was the rival Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
's major drawcard. Bonci himself joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1908 and, in 1914, the Chicago Opera. He also made a transcontinental tour of America in 1910-11, giving song recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
s.
Bonci served in the Italian army during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, returning to America to tour for three seasons after the end of the conflict. He appeared again at the Metropolitan Opera, and sang in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
during the 1920-21 season. In 1922 and 1923 he served as the principal tenor of the Teatro Costanzi in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and conducted master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es across the United States the following year. After 1925, Bonci entered into partial retirement, devoting himself primarily to teaching in Milan. He still sang occasionally in public as late as 1935. He died in Viserba, Rimini, in 1940, at the age of 70.
Recordings
Bonci's artistry was captured on disc by the Fonotipia, Edison and ColumbiaColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
companies. His first recordings were made in 1905 and his last in 1926, with a handful produced between these dates (in 1913). On them, he is heard to best advantage in operatic arias by Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti and Gluck, but he was also renowned in Europe and the United States for his Rodolfo in Puccini's La boheme
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, his Riccardo in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
and his Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
.
Voice
Bonci was a demure man and his voice was not overly large. It was sweet-toned, stylish and supple, with excellent high notes and an easy high C. He sang with a marked vibratoVibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
.