Frank Guarrera
Encyclopedia
Frank Guarrera was an Italian-American lyric baritone
who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera
, singing with the company for a total of 680 performances. He performed 35 different roles at the Met, mostly from the Italian and French repertories, from 1948 through 1976. His most frequent assignments at the house were as Escamillo in Georges Bizet
's Carmen
, Marcello in Giacomo Puccini
's La Bohème
, Valentin in Charles Gounod
's Faust
, and Ping in Puccini's Turandot
. He was also an admired interpreter of Mozart roles, establishing himself in the parts of both Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte
and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. Most of the roles he portrayed were from the lyric repertoire, such as the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
, but he also sang some heavier roles at the Met like Amonasro in Aïda
, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West
and Il conte di Luna in Il trovatore
.
Although Guarrera did not possess as large of a voice as some of his fellow Met baritones, such as Leonard Warren
and Robert Merrill
, he managed to carve out a highly successful career for himself at the house through his charismatic stage presence, good looks, and well-focused lyrical tone. He sang at the Met during a "golden age of baritones" whose members also included Robert Weede
, Tito Gobbi
, Cornell MacNeil
, Sherrill Milnes
and Anselmo Colzani
. The Times
said that, "Frank Guarrera was a rare all-rounder, a singer whose competence, versatility, intelligence, good stage presence and the absence of inflated ideas of his own importance made him a valued colleague and the kind of stalwart company member that opera managers dream about."
to parents of Sicilian origin. He was first exposed to opera at the Victor Café in South Philadelphia, and his earliest performance experiences were made with his high school's choir. He began his musical studies at the Curtis Institute of Music
in his native city, where he was a pupil of Richard Bonelli and Eufemia Giannini-Gregory. He spent two years serving in the United States Navy
during World War II, and then returned to the Curtis Institute to complete his studies.
Guarrera made his professional debut as Silvio in I Pagliacci, at the New York City Opera
in 1947. That same year he appeared at the Tanglewood Music Festival
as the voice of the Oracle of Neptune in Mozart's Idomeneo
. Shortly after, he won the Metropolitan Opera's Auditions of the Air which led to his being offered a Met contract by then general manager Edward Johnson
. The competition win also brought him to the attention of conductor Arturo Toscanini
, who invited the young baritone to make his La Scala
debut as Fanuel in Arrigo Boito
's Nerone
in 1948. Guarrerra said of the experience of singing Nerone for the first time,
Following Nerone, Guarrera sang in two more productions at La Scala in 1948, Zurga in a new production of Les Pêcheurs de Perles
with Onelia Fineschi, and Manfredo in L'amore dei tre re
with Clara Petrella
and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
.
in the title role, Ramon Vinay
as Don José, Licia Albanese
as Micaela, and Wilfred Pelletier conducting. That role became one of his signature roles at the Met; singing the role a total of 83 times for the company over the next twenty three years, including the premiere of Tyrone Guthrie
's critically acclaimed 1952 staging of the opera. His other signature Met roles included Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Falke in Die Fledermaus
, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ford in Falstaff
(which he recorded with Toscanini in 1950), Marcello in La Bohème, and Valentin in Faust.
Guarrera sang at the Met for 28 consecutive seasons and was featured in numerous successful new stagings made during the tenure of General Director Rudolf Bing. Some of his more notable portrayals were Guglielmo in the first performances of Alfred Lunt
's staging of Mozart
's Così Fan Tutte
(1951); Malatesta in Dino Yannopoulos's staging of Gaetano Donizetti
's Don Pasquale
(1955) with conductor Thomas Schippers
in his Met debut; Belcore in Nathaniel Merrill
's new staging of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
(1960); Ping in Yoshio Aoyama's staging of Turandot (1961); Lescaut in Günther Rennert
staging of Jules Massenet
's Manon
with Anna Moffo
in the title role; and Alfio in Franco Zeffirelli
's critically acclaimed 1970 staging of Cavalleria rusticana
with conductor Leonard Bernstein
.
In 1960 Guarrera had a significant personal triumph at the Met when he stepped into the title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra
after the death of Leonard Warren. He said of the experience, "I was the cover, and I was it. I had barely learned the part. I got the phone call at my house from Rudolf Bing. The costumes were a little big for me, but I said not to worry. Fold everything up in the back and put in pins. I used one of my capes from Ernani
to cover everything. That was a night to remember." Some of Guarrera's other Met roles included: Amonasro in Aida
, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor
, Germont in La traviata
, Malatesta in Don Pasquale
, and the title role in Rigoletto
. His last performance in a staged opera at the Met was in the title role of Gianni Schicchi
in a new staging by Fabrizio Melano on May 8, 1976. He returned to the Met thirty years later on January 14, 2006 for a concert celebrating Mozart singing the duet "Il core vi dono" from Così fan tutte
with Blanche Thebom
.
during the 1950s and 1960s. He made his debut with the company as Amonasro to Herva Nelli
's Aida on November 1, 1952. His other roles with the company included, Count di Luna (1952), Tonio (1952), Escamillo (1953, 1959, 1966), Rossini's Figaro (1953), Marcello (1954, 1958), Lord Henry Ashton to Mado Robin
's Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor
(1954), Ping (1954), Guglielmo (1956, 1960), Ford (1956, 1966), Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
(1956), Lescaut in Puccini's Manon Lescaut
(1956), various roles in Carmina Burana
(1958–1959), Rodrigo in Don Carlo (1958), Manfredo (1959), Silvio (1959), and Rigoletto (1966). He returned to the house after an eight year absence in 1974. His final performance at the SFO was on November 30, 1974 as Sharpless to Pilar Lorengar
's Butterfly and Barry Morell
's Pinkerton.
Guarrera also appeared frequently in Chicago and Los Angeles and made opera appearances in London and Paris.
in Seattle through the invitation of former Met colleague Mary Curtis Verna
who was then chair of the university's voice department. He taught at the school from 1980 to 1990 with his most successful students being tenor Timothy Mussard and baritone Mel Ulrich. He quit teaching when his wife Adelina suffered a massive stroke, serving as her primary caretaker until her death in 2000. The couple returned to Philadelphia for their final years together and Guarrera remained in the area for the rest of his life. He and his wife had two children together, Dennis and Valerie. He died at his home in Bellmawr, New Jersey
, on November 23, 2007, ten days before his 84th birthday. The cause of death was complications from diabetes.
, Faust, Ford in Falstaff under Toscanini, Cavalleria rusticana. He can also be heard on several live broadcasts from the Met.
painted by Peter Pagast at Broad and Tasker Streets in Philadelphia. The mural, painted in 2003, features Guarrera in several of his famous opera roles, including The Barber of Seville and Escamillo, the bullfighter, in Carmen.
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 enjoyed a long and distinguished career 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...
, singing with the company for a total of 680 performances. He performed 35 different roles at the Met, mostly from the Italian and French repertories, from 1948 through 1976. His most frequent assignments at the house were as Escamillo in Georges 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 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...
, Valentin in Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
'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...
, and Ping in Puccini's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
. He was also an admired interpreter of Mozart roles, establishing himself in the parts of both Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. Most of the roles he portrayed were from the lyric repertoire, such as the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, but he also sang some heavier roles at the Met like Amonasro in Aïda
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...
, Jack Rance in 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...
and Il conte di Luna in 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...
.
Although Guarrera did not possess as large of a voice as some of his fellow Met baritones, such as 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:...
and Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone.-Early life:Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, to tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife Lillian, née Balaban, immigrants from Warsaw, Poland.His mother...
, he managed to carve out a highly successful career for himself at the house through his charismatic stage presence, good looks, and well-focused lyrical tone. He sang at the Met during a "golden age of baritones" whose members also included Robert Weede
Robert Weede
-Biography:Born Robert Wiedefeld in Baltimore, Maryland, Weede studied voice at the Eastman School of Music and in Milan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1937, as Tonio in Pagliacci...
, Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
, Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil
Cornell MacNeil , was an American operatic baritone known for his exceptional voice and long career with the Metropolitan Opera, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles. F...
, Sherrill Milnes
Sherrill Milnes
Sherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera....
and Anselmo Colzani
Anselmo Colzani
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...
. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said that, "Frank Guarrera was a rare all-rounder, a singer whose competence, versatility, intelligence, good stage presence and the absence of inflated ideas of his own importance made him a valued colleague and the kind of stalwart company member that opera managers dream about."
Early life and career
Frank Guarrera was born in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
to parents of Sicilian origin. He was first exposed to opera at the Victor Café in South Philadelphia, and his earliest performance experiences were made with his high school's choir. He began his musical studies at the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
in his native city, where he was a pupil of Richard Bonelli and Eufemia Giannini-Gregory. He spent two years serving in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
during World War II, and then returned to the Curtis Institute to complete his studies.
Guarrera made his professional debut as Silvio in I Pagliacci, at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in 1947. That same year he appeared at the Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
as the voice of the Oracle of Neptune in Mozart's Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
. Shortly after, he won the Metropolitan Opera's Auditions of the Air which led to his being offered a Met contract by then general manager Edward Johnson
Edward Johnson (tenor)
Edward Patrick Johnson CBE was a Canadian operatic tenor who was billed outside North America as Edoardo Di Giovanni, and became director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.- Early life :...
. The competition win also brought him to the attention of conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, who invited the young baritone to make his 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...
debut as Fanuel in Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele...
's Nerone
Nerone
Nerone is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, 1935, from a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on the play Nerone by Pietro Cossa...
in 1948. Guarrerra said of the experience of singing Nerone for the first time,
"For all I knew, it could have been by Beethoven. I was taken to Toscanini's studio at NBC. That was Studio 8H, the famous one, and of course his dressing room was like a huge apartment. We walked into this gorgeous living room with a grand piano, and there he was, this little guy, with his pince-nez glasses. After some small talk in Italian, he put his hand on my shoulder and asked me to sing. So I unbuttoned my collar -- I had no fear whatsoever -- and I sang. Later, Toscanini's son, Walter, spoke to me. 'Well, Mr. Guarrera, my dad would like to invite you to sing at La Scala. Will you be able to make it? Are you busy?' And that's how I made my debut in Milan. I sang the last two acts of Nerone, fully staged, under Toscanini, in a program that opened with the Mefistofele prologue. The bass playing the devil was a young man named Cesare SiepiCesare SiepiCesare Siepi was an Italian opera singer, generally considered to have been one of the finest basses of the post-war period. His voice was characterised by a deep, warm timbre, and a ringing, vibrant upper register. On stage, his tall, striking presence and elegance of phrasing made him a natural...
. Little did I know that someone recorded that performance. But this thing exists, and if you play it at the right speed, it's not bad."
Following Nerone, Guarrera sang in two more productions at La Scala in 1948, Zurga in a new production of Les Pêcheurs de Perles
Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
with Onelia Fineschi, and Manfredo in L'amore dei tre re
L'amore dei tre re
L'amore dei tre re is an opera in three acts by Italo Montemezzi. Its Italian-language libretto was written by playwright Sem Benelli who based it on his own play of the same title.-Performance history:...
with Clara Petrella
Clara Petrella
Clara Petrella was an Italian operatic soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, an outstanding singing-actress nicknamed the "Duse of Singers"....
and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni
Nicola Rossi Lemeni, , was a basso opera singer of mixed Italian-Russian parentage.Rossi Lemeni was born in Istanbul, Turkey, the son of an Italian colonel and a Russian mother. In his prime he was one of the most respected bassos in Italy...
.
Singing at the Met
Guarrera made his Met debut on December 14, 1948 as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen with Risë StevensRisë Stevens
Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...
in the title role, Ramon Vinay
Ramón Vinay
Ramón Vinay was a famous Chilean operatic tenor with a powerful, dramatic voice. He is probably best remembered for his appearances in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's tragic opera Otello....
as Don José, Licia Albanese
Licia Albanese
Licia Albanese is an Italian-born American operatic soprano. Noted especially for her portrayals of the lyric heroines of Verdi and Puccini, Albanese was a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera of New York from 1940 to 1966...
as Micaela, and Wilfred Pelletier conducting. That role became one of his signature roles at the Met; singing the role a total of 83 times for the company over the next twenty three years, including the premiere of Tyrone Guthrie
Tyrone Guthrie
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, at his family's home, Annaghmakerrig, in County Monaghan, Ireland.-Life and career:Guthrie...
's critically acclaimed 1952 staging of the opera. His other signature Met roles included Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Falke in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ford 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...
(which he recorded with Toscanini in 1950), Marcello in La Bohème, and Valentin in Faust.
Guarrera sang at the Met for 28 consecutive seasons and was featured in numerous successful new stagings made during the tenure of General Director Rudolf Bing. Some of his more notable portrayals were Guglielmo in the first performances of Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt was an American stage director and actor, often identified for a long-time professional partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne...
's staging of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Così Fan Tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
(1951); Malatesta in Dino Yannopoulos's staging of Gaetano 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 Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
(1955) with conductor Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers was an American conductor. He was highly-regarded for his work in opera.-Biography:...
in his Met debut; Belcore in Nathaniel Merrill
Nathaniel Merrill
Nathaniel Merrill was a celebrated American stage director and opera director. He was the resident stage director at the Metropolitan Opera from 1956-1985. During his 28 seasons at the Met he staged a total of 14 new productions in addition to directing several revivals. He also served as the...
's new staging of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
(1960); Ping in Yoshio Aoyama's staging of Turandot (1961); Lescaut in Günther Rennert
Günther Rennert
Günther Rennert was a German opera director and administrator.Rennert was born in Essen, Rhine Province. Starting as a film director in 1933, he then became involved in the operatic theatre, becoming an assistant to Walter Felsenstein at the Oper Frankfurt...
staging of 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...
with Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation...
in the title role; and Alfio in 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 critically acclaimed 1970 staging of 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...
with conductor 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...
.
In 1960 Guarrera had a significant personal triumph at the Met when he stepped into 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....
after the death of Leonard Warren. He said of the experience, "I was the cover, and I was it. I had barely learned the part. I got the phone call at my house from Rudolf Bing. The costumes were a little big for me, but I said not to worry. Fold everything up in the back and put in pins. I used one of my capes from Ernani
Ernani
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...
to cover everything. That was a night to remember." Some of Guarrera's other Met roles included: Amonasro in 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...
, Enrico in 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....
, Germont in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Malatesta in Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, and the title role in 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...
. His last performance in a staged opera at the Met was in the title role of Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
in a new staging by Fabrizio Melano on May 8, 1976. He returned to the Met thirty years later on January 14, 2006 for a concert celebrating Mozart singing the duet "Il core vi dono" from Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
with Blanche Thebom
Blanche Thebom
Blanche Thebom was an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director. She was part of the first wave of American opera singers that had highly successful international careers. In her own country she had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City which...
.
Other career highlights
Guarrera was also a regular performer at the San Francisco OperaSan 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...
during the 1950s and 1960s. He made his debut with the company as Amonasro to Herva Nelli
Herva Nelli
Herva Nelli was an Italian-born operatic soprano.-Biography:Named after the French socialist Gustave Hervé, she was born in Florence, where she attended a convent school...
's Aida on November 1, 1952. His other roles with the company included, Count di Luna (1952), Tonio (1952), Escamillo (1953, 1959, 1966), Rossini's Figaro (1953), Marcello (1954, 1958), Lord Henry Ashton to Mado Robin
Mado Robin
Madeleine Marie Robin, known as Mado Robin , was a French coloratura soprano.She was born in Yzeures-sur-Creuse, Touraine, where she owned the Château Les Vallées. A star of television and radio in the 1950s, she was well known in France...
's Lucia in 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....
(1954), Ping (1954), Guglielmo (1956, 1960), Ford (1956, 1966), 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...
(1956), Lescaut in Puccini's Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité . It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication...
(1956), various roles in Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...
(1958–1959), Rodrigo in Don Carlo (1958), Manfredo (1959), Silvio (1959), and Rigoletto (1966). He returned to the house after an eight year absence in 1974. His final performance at the SFO was on November 30, 1974 as Sharpless to Pilar Lorengar
Pilar Lorengar
Lorenza Pilar García Seta was a Spanish soprano who used the professional name Pilar Lorengar. She was best known for her interpretations of opera and the Spanish genre Zarzuela, and as a soprano she was known for her full register, a youthful timbre as well as a distinctive vibrato.Pilar was...
's Butterfly and Barry Morell
Barry Morell
Barry Morell was an American operatic tenor particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoire.He was born in New York City and studied at the Juilliard School with Giuseppe Danise...
's Pinkerton.
Guarrera also appeared frequently in Chicago and Los Angeles and made opera appearances in London and Paris.
Later life and career
Following his retirement from the stage, Guarrera joined the voice faculty at the University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle through the invitation of former Met colleague Mary Curtis Verna
Mary Curtis Verna
Mary Virginia Curtis Verna was an American operatic soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory....
who was then chair of the university's voice department. He taught at the school from 1980 to 1990 with his most successful students being tenor Timothy Mussard and baritone Mel Ulrich. He quit teaching when his wife Adelina suffered a massive stroke, serving as her primary caretaker until her death in 2000. The couple returned to Philadelphia for their final years together and Guarrera remained in the area for the rest of his life. He and his wife had two children together, Dennis and Valerie. He died at his home in Bellmawr, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, on November 23, 2007, ten days before his 84th birthday. The cause of death was complications from diabetes.
Recordings
Guarrera is featured on complete opera recordings, including Così fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, opposite Lily PonsLily Pons
Lily Pons was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer she specialized in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly associated with the title roles in Léo Delibes' Lakmé and Gaetano...
, Faust, Ford in Falstaff under Toscanini, Cavalleria rusticana. He can also be heard on several live broadcasts from the Met.
Awards and honors
Frank Guarrera is honored with a muralMural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
painted by Peter Pagast at Broad and Tasker Streets in Philadelphia. The mural, painted in 2003, features Guarrera in several of his famous opera roles, including The Barber of Seville and Escamillo, the bullfighter, in Carmen.
Sources
- D. Hamilton (ed.),The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Opera (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
- The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera, edited by Paul Gruber - ISBN 9780393034448
- M.G.Genesi,"Anna Moffo:une carriére italo-américaine"(Borgonovo V. T. di Piacenza,Edizioni Orione,2002,496 pages)