Anselmo Colzani
Encyclopedia
Anselmo Colzani was an Italian operatic baritone
who had an international opera career from the late 1940s through 1980. He particularly excelled in the Italian repertory and was most associated with the works of Giuseppe Verdi
and Giacomo Puccini
. He began his career in Italy in 1947 where he quickly became a regular presence at that country's best opera houses, including La Scala
. In the mid 1950s he began appearing at major opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. In 1960 he joined the roster at the Metropolitan Opera
where he spent most of his time through 1978. Opera News
commented that while his voice may have "lacked the sheer beauty [of other baritones], his performances had an Italianate urgency and forthright thrust that were unique, which established himself as a powerful, striking presence."
, near Bologna, Italy
into a family of talented amateur musicians. His parents encouraged him in musical pursuits as a child but he did not pursue seriously until years later. In 1936, a the age of eighteen, he joined the Italian Army
where he served during World War II. It wasn't until towards the end of the war that he started pursuing serious studies with Corrado Zambelli
in Bologna.
's Lohengrin
alongside Renata Tebaldi
who was making her first appearance at that opera house singing Elsa. A few years later he was invited back to that house to sing the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto
, a performance which greatly rose his profile as an opera singer. His career truly took off with his 1952 debut at La Scala
in Milan, as Alfio in Mascagni
's Cavalleria rusticana
, other roles included de Sirex in Giordano
's Fedora, Escamillo in Bizet
's Carmen
, Marcello in Puccini
's La bohème
, and Telramund in Lohengrin among others. He took part in the creation of Darius Milhaud
's David, in 1955, and sang Thoas in Gluck
's Iphigénie en Tauride
, opposite Maria Callas
in 1957. He made his first appearance at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
in 1954 as Telramund and returned there many times throughout his career. In 1955 he made his first appearance at the Baths of Caracalla
music festival as Severo in Donizetti
's Poliuto
. He also appeared regularly at the opera houses in Genoa
, Naples
, Palermo
, and at the Verona Arena
.
Outside Italy, he appeared at many houses throughout Europe and in the United States. In 1955 he made his first appearance at the Teatro Nacional Sao Carlos in Lisbon as Alfio. In 1956 he made his American debut at the San Francisco Opera
as Count di Luna in Verdi
's Il trovatore
. He sang several more roles with that house that season including Amonasro in Verdi's Aida
, Gianciotto in Zandonai
's Francesca da Rimini
, Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
, and Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca
. In 1957 he made his first appearance with the Vienna State Opera
as Iago in Verdi's Otello
. In 1959 he sang in the world premiere of Luciano Chailly
's La riva delle sirti at the Monte Carlo Opera and made his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
. In 1960 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
as Amonasro with Leontyne Price
in the title role. In 1966 he sang Amonasro for the inauguration of Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
with the Houston Grand Opera
.
in New York City, with an invitation to join the roster at the Met after the sudden death of Leonard Warren
during a performance of La forza del destino
left a vancancy at the house. He agreed and on April 7, 1960 Colzani made his debut at the Met in the title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra
with Renata Tebaldi
as Amelia, Richard Tucker
as Gabriele Adorno, Jerome Hines
as Jacopo Fiesco, and Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting. He remained with the company for the next sixteen seasons, portraying such roles as Amonasro, Barnaba in Ponchielli
's La Gioconda
, Don Carlo in Verdi's La forza del destino, Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
, Gérard in Giordano's Andrea Chénier
, Iago, Jack Rance in Puccini's La fanciulla del west
, Scarpia, Tonio in Leoncavallo
's Pagliacci
, and the title roles in Falstaff
, Macbeth
, Nabucco
, and Rigoletto
among others.
Colzani's most frequent role at the Met was Scarpia; portraying the role more than forty times to the Toscas of several famous singers such as Renata Tebaldi
, Birgit Nilsson
, Leontyne Price
, Zinka Milanov
, Dorothy Kirsten
, Gabriella Tucci
, Leonie Rysanek
and Grace Bumbry
. Opera News stated that, "Undoubtedly Colzani's highest-profile assignment at the Met was Falstaff in the first performances of Franco Zeffirelli
's much-loved 1964 production of Verdi's opera, conducted at its premiere by Leonard Bernstein
." His final and 272nd performance at the Met was on February 16, 1978 as Michonnet in Adriana Lecouvreur
with Montserrat Caballé
in the title role, José Carreras
as Maurizio, Mignon Dunn as Princess di Bouillon, and conductor Jesús López-Cobos
.
In 2002 the Colzani's home city, Budrio, established an annual international opera competition named in his honor.
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...
who had an international opera career from the late 1940s through 1980. He particularly excelled in the Italian repertory and was most associated with the works of 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...
and Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
. He began his career in Italy in 1947 where he quickly became a regular presence at that country's best opera houses, including 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...
. In the mid 1950s he began appearing at major opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. In 1960 he joined the roster at the 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...
where he spent most of his time through 1978. Opera News
Opera News
Opera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
commented that while his voice may have "lacked the sheer beauty [of other baritones], his performances had an Italianate urgency and forthright thrust that were unique, which established himself as a powerful, striking presence."
Early life and education
Colzani was born in BudrioBudrio
Budrio is a town and comune in the province of Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy; it is located 15 km E of Bologna.Budrio has two high schools, including a lyceum, a post office, banks, a communal theatre, a swimming pool and several squares...
, near Bologna, Italy
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
into a family of talented amateur musicians. His parents encouraged him in musical pursuits as a child but he did not pursue seriously until years later. In 1936, a the age of eighteen, he joined the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
where he served during World War II. It wasn't until towards the end of the war that he started pursuing serious studies with Corrado Zambelli
Corrado Zambelli
Corrado Zambelli was an Italian classical bass who had an active international singing career in operas and concerts from the 1920s through the 1950s...
in Bologna.
Early career and rise to international fame
Colzani made his stage debut in 1947 at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, as the Herald in WagnerRichard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
alongside Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
who was making her first appearance at that opera house singing Elsa. A few years later he was invited back to that house to sing the title role 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...
, a performance which greatly rose his profile as an opera singer. His career truly took off with his 1952 debut 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...
in Milan, as Alfio in Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, other roles included de Sirex in Giordano
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
's Fedora, Escamillo in Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Marcello in Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
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...
, and Telramund in Lohengrin among others. He took part in the creation of Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
's David, in 1955, and sang Thoas in Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
, opposite Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
in 1957. He made his first appearance at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
in 1954 as Telramund and returned there many times throughout his career. In 1955 he made his first appearance at the Baths of Caracalla
Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy were Roman public baths, or thermae, built in Rome between AD 212 and 216, during the reign of the Emperor Caracalla.- History :...
music festival as Severo in Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Poliuto
Poliuto
Poliuto is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte . It was composed in 1838 and first performed on 30 November 1848 at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples...
. He also appeared regularly at the opera houses in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, and at the Verona Arena
Verona Arena
The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy, which is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind....
.
Outside Italy, he appeared at many houses throughout Europe and in the United States. In 1955 he made his first appearance at the Teatro Nacional Sao Carlos in Lisbon as Alfio. In 1956 he made his American debut at the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
as Count di Luna in 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 Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
. He sang several more roles with that house that season including Amonasro in Verdi's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Gianciotto in Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai was an Italian composer.-Biography:Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria–Hungary....
's Francesca da Rimini
Francesca da Rimini (Zandonai)
Francesca da Rimini is an opera in four acts, composed by Riccardo Zandonai, with libretto by Tito Ricordi, , after a play by Gabriele D'Annunzio. It was premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on February 19, 1914, and is still staged occasionally.This opera is Zandonai's best-known work...
, Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, and Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
. In 1957 he made his first appearance with the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
as Iago in Verdi's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
. In 1959 he sang in the world premiere of Luciano Chailly
Luciano Chailly
Luciano Chailly was an Italian composer and arts administrator. He is the father of harpist Cecilia Chailly and conductor Riccardo Chailly. As a composer, Chailly was best-known for his operas, many of which were composed to libretti by Dino Buzzati.-Reference:*...
's La riva delle sirti at the Monte Carlo Opera and made his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
. In 1960 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius...
as Amonasro with Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
in the title role. In 1966 he sang Amonasro for the inauguration of Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
The Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, commonly known as Jones Hall, is a performance venue in Houston, Texas, and the permanent home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Society for the Performing Arts....
with the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
.
The Metropolitan Opera years
In March 1960 Colzani was approached by Rudolf Bing, General Manager of the Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan 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...
in New York City, with an invitation to join the roster at the Met after the sudden death of Leonard Warren
Leonard Warren
Leonard Warren was a famous American opera singer. A baritone, he was a leading artist for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.-Biography:...
during a performance of La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
left a vancancy at the house. He agreed and on April 7, 1960 Colzani made his debut at the Met in the title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
with Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
as Amelia, Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor.-Early life:Tucker was born Rivn Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first...
as Gabriele Adorno, Jerome Hines
Jerome Hines
The American Jerome A. Hines was a basso opera singer who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1987...
as Jacopo Fiesco, and Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting. He remained with the company for the next sixteen seasons, portraying such roles as Amonasro, Barnaba in Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
, Don Carlo in Verdi's La forza del destino, Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, Gérard in Giordano's Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, Iago, Jack Rance in Puccini's La fanciulla del west
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
, Scarpia, Tonio in Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
, and the title roles in 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...
, Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, Nabucco
Nabucco
Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
, and 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...
among others.
Colzani's most frequent role at the Met was Scarpia; portraying the role more than forty times to the Toscas of several famous singers such as Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
, Birgit Nilsson
Birgit Nilsson
right|thumb|Nilsson in 1948.Birgit Nilsson was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works...
, Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
, Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov was a Croatian-born operatic spinto soprano who had a major career centred on the New York Metropolitan Opera.-Biography:...
, Dorothy Kirsten
Dorothy Kirsten
Dorothy Kirsten was an American operatic soprano.-Biography:...
, Gabriella Tucci
Gabriella Tucci
Gabriella Tucci is an Italian operatic soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.Born in Rome, Italy, Tucci trained at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia with Leonardo Filoni, whom she later married. She made her debut at Spoleto, as Leonora in La forza del destino, opposite...
, Leonie Rysanek
Leonie Rysanek
Leopoldine "Leonie" Rysanek was an Austrian dramatic soprano.-Biography:Rysanek was born in Vienna and made her operatic debut in 1949 in Innsbruck. In 1951 the Bayreuth Festival reopened and the new leader Wieland Wagner asked her to sing Sieglinde...
and Grace Bumbry
Grace Bumbry
Grace Bumbry , an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years...
. Opera News stated that, "Undoubtedly Colzani's highest-profile assignment at the Met was Falstaff in the first performances of Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
's much-loved 1964 production of Verdi's opera, conducted at its premiere by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
." His final and 272nd performance at the Met was on February 16, 1978 as Michonnet in Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...
with Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....
in the title role, José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
as Maurizio, Mignon Dunn as Princess di Bouillon, and conductor Jesús López-Cobos
Jesús López-Cobos
Jesús López-Cobos is a Spanish conductor.López-Cobos was born in Toro, Zamora, Castile-León, Spain. He studied at Complutense University of Madrid and graduated with a degree in philosophy...
.
Later life
After leaving the Met in 1978, Colzani continued performing for two more years, making his last appearance on the opera stage as Scarpia in 1980. He retired to Milan where he died after a long illness in 2006. During his later years he enjoyed time with his family. He had two daughters, Bianca and Miriam, from his first marriage which ended when his first wife died at a very young age. He was married to his second wife, Ada, for more than 50 years.In 2002 the Colzani's home city, Budrio, established an annual international opera competition named in his honor.