Evan Gorga
Encyclopedia
Evangelista Gennaro Gorga (February 6, 1865 – December 5, 1957) was an Italian lyric tenor. He is best known for originating the role of Rodolfo in the original production of Giacomo Puccini
's La bohème
at the Teatro Regio Torino
in 1896.
), Italy in the province of Caserta (now Frosinone
). His father, Pietro Gorga, was a small land owner, while his mother, Matilde De Santis, was the daughter of a local nobleman. The family lived in a house that stood in what is now the historical center of Broccostella.
when called in to replace the scheduled performer, Francisco Tamagno, who was sick. In 1895, he performed the role of Wilhelm Meister in Ambroise Thomas
's Mignon
, Le Chevalier des Grieux in Jules Massenet
's Manon
, and Fritz Kobus in Pietro Mascagni
's L'amico Fritz
, all at the Teatro Comunale di Cagliari. He also performed in a production of Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata
at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in September 1895.
In 1896, Gorga became a part of music history when he originated the role of Rodolfo in the original production of Giacomo Puccini
's La bohème
at the Teatro Regio Torino
.
That same year he also played the role of Faust in Boito's Mefistofele
.
In 1897, Gorga sang several roles at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice
including originating the role of Marcello in Leoncavallo's La bohème
which is based on Henry Murger's Scènes de la vie de Bohème.
Over the next couple years, Gorga reprised the role of Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème with several companies, including the Teatro Piccinni
in Bari
, Teatro San Carlo in Naples
and performances in Genoa
. He gave performances of the title role in Gounod's Faust
with several companies and was the tenor soloist is a production of Lorenzo Perosi's oratorio
La risurrezione di Lazzaro at the Teatro dell'Aquila in Fermo
.
In January 1899, Gorga once again reprised the role of Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème at the Teatro Drammatico in Verona
. And although he received excellent critical reviews, this was his last performance. It is unclear as to why he gave up such a successful opera career at the young age of 34.
and artistic works. Among the large quantity of pieces he collected was a vast array of musical instruments. Unfortunately, due to financial difficulties suffered during the Great Depression
and World War II, Gorga had to sell about a half of this collection. In 1949 he left a collection of about 3.000 pieces, made up of mostly musical instruments but also a few paintings and other forms of art, to the State of Italy that is now on display at the Galleria Borghese
in Rome. It is the largest collection of any kind ever given to the museum and makes up the bulk of the museum's entire musical instrument collection. Although technically a gift under a 1949 law, the Italian government agreed to pay Gorga's debts and to give him a life allowance in return for the collection.
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...
at the Teatro Regio Torino
Teatro Regio Torino
The Teatro Regio is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each....
in 1896.
Early life
Evan Gorga was born in Brocco (now BroccostellaBroccostella
Broccostella is a comune in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio, located about 100 km east of Rome and about 25 km northeast of Frosinone. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,704 and an area of 12.0 km².Broccostella borders the following...
), Italy in the province of Caserta (now Frosinone
Frosinone
Frosinone is a town and comune in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the Province of Frosinone. It is located about 75 km south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples Autostrada A1...
). His father, Pietro Gorga, was a small land owner, while his mother, Matilde De Santis, was the daughter of a local nobleman. The family lived in a house that stood in what is now the historical center of Broccostella.
Education and career
As a teenager and a young man, Gorga studied voice with a teacher with the surname Franceschetti. In 1894, he made his professional opera debut in the title role of Verdi's ErnaniErnani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
when called in to replace the scheduled performer, Francisco Tamagno, who was sick. In 1895, he performed the role of Wilhelm Meister in Ambroise Thomas
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
's Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, Le Chevalier des Grieux in Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, and Fritz Kobus in Pietro 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 L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon , based on the French novel L'ami Fritz by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian.While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after...
, all at the Teatro Comunale di Cagliari. He also performed in a production of Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata
I Lombardi alla prima crociata
I Lombardi alla prima crociata is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi. Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843...
at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in September 1895.
In 1896, Gorga became a part of music history when he originated the role of Rodolfo in the original production of 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...
'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...
at the Teatro Regio Torino
Teatro Regio Torino
The Teatro Regio is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each....
.
That same year he also played the role of Faust in Boito's Mefistofele
Mefistofele
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
.
In 1897, Gorga sang several roles at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
including originating the role of Marcello in Leoncavallo's La bohème
La bohème (Leoncavallo)
La bohème is an Italian opera in four acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. The opera received its premiere at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice on May 6, 1897....
which is based on Henry Murger's Scènes de la vie de Bohème.
Over the next couple years, Gorga reprised the role of Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème with several companies, including the Teatro Piccinni
Teatro Piccinni
Teatro Piccinni is a theatre in the city of Bari, Apulia on the east coast of Italy. It was founded in 1854 and opened on 30 May of that year. -References:...
in Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
, Teatro San Carlo in 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...
and performances 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....
. He gave performances of the title role in Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
with several companies and was the tenor soloist is a production of Lorenzo Perosi's oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
La risurrezione di Lazzaro at the Teatro dell'Aquila in Fermo
Fermo
Fermo is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.Fermo is located on a hill, the Sabulo with a fine view, on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway....
.
In January 1899, Gorga once again reprised the role of Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème at the Teatro Drammatico in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
. And although he received excellent critical reviews, this was his last performance. It is unclear as to why he gave up such a successful opera career at the young age of 34.
Personal life
Gorga was a collecter of antiquesAntiques
An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age , beauty, rarity, condition, utility, personal emotional connection, and/or other unique features...
and artistic works. Among the large quantity of pieces he collected was a vast array of musical instruments. Unfortunately, due to financial difficulties suffered during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and World War II, Gorga had to sell about a half of this collection. In 1949 he left a collection of about 3.000 pieces, made up of mostly musical instruments but also a few paintings and other forms of art, to the State of Italy that is now on display at the Galleria Borghese
Galleria Borghese
The Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
in Rome. It is the largest collection of any kind ever given to the museum and makes up the bulk of the museum's entire musical instrument collection. Although technically a gift under a 1949 law, the Italian government agreed to pay Gorga's debts and to give him a life allowance in return for the collection.
Sources
- The New Grove Dictionary of OperaNew Grove Dictionary of OperaThe New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
, edited by Stanley Sadie (1992), 5,448 pages, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
- Opera: A Concise History, by Leslie Orrey and Rodney MilnesRodney MilnesRodney Milnes Blumer is an English music critic, musicologist, writer, translator and broadcaster, with a particular interest in opera.He attended Rugby School and Oxford University before working in publishing....
, World of Art, Thames & Hudson