TREMENDOUS SINGING!!!! Ettore bastianini 1922 - 1967 sings Decio, signor del mondo from poliuto

Ettore Bastianini (24 September 1922 – 25 January 1967) was an Italian operatic baritone who was particularly associated with the operas of the bel canto tradition. Early training and career as a bass Born in Siena, Bastianini first began performing at fifteen while apprenticed to a pastry chef, Gaetano Vanni, who discovered his vocal talent and encouraged him to join the choir of his hometown's cathedral. Between 1937 and 1938, he sang bass during Masses and religious functions at the church. In 1939 he began singing lessons under Fathima and Anselmo Ammanati, who continued training him as a bass. He sang his first professional concerts in 1940 and 1941 in Asciano and Siena at the Fortezza Medicea and Teatro dei Rozzi. In 1942 he won first prize in the 6th National Singing Contest at the Teatro Comunale, Florence, but was soon drafted into the Italian Air Force which prevented him from immediately enjoying the scholarship accompanying the prize. Bastianini gave his first broadcast recital for the Italian Radio on 29 December 1950. Earlier that year, he had toured Egypt again and appeared in operas in Italy. He toured Egypt once more, just before returning to Italy for his final bass performance in April 1951 at Turin's Teatro Alfieri as Colline. Believing his voice was better suited to the baritone repertoire and encouraged by his teacher, Luciano Bettarini, Bastianini left the stage for seven months, studying and re-training his vocal instrument. Career as a baritone Triumph on the international stage: 1952–1957 Bastianini made his debut as a baritone on 17 January 1952, in Siena, as Giorgio Germont in Verdi's La traviata. His performance was not well received, and he left the stage again for a brief period of intense vocal exercise to secure the top of his voice. Upon his return just weeks later, he sang Rigoletto in Siena with success. This was followed by Amonasro in Pescara and a return to the role of Germont in Bologna, with Virginia Zeani as Violetta. He also gave several performances at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, including both Count Tomsky (spring 1952) and Prince Yeletsky (spring 1954) in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in Prokofiev's War and Peace (spring 1953), and the title role in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa (1954). Golden years: 1958–1962 In 1958, Bastianini sang his first Scarpia at the Teatro di San Carlo. This was followed by three other roles new to him at La Scala that summer: Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, Ernesto in Il pirata (with Callas and Franco Corelli), and the title role in Nabucco. In July of that year, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Rodrigo under Herbert von Karajan, and then returned to Bilbao in September for several more performances. Towards the end of the year, he sang four roles in five days at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, followed by his only baroque opera role, Lichas in Handel's Hercules under Lovro von Matačić, at La Scala. In September 1958, Bastianini sang for the first time at the Vienna State Opera as Scarpia opposite Tebaldi's Tosca. He performed regularly there until the end of his career, in 1965. In the fall of 1959, he debuted at the Dallas Opera singing Enrico opposite Callas's Lucia, and Figaro as well. The following December, he sang his first Michonnet in Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur at the Teatro di San Carlo, starring Magda Olivero. He returned to that house in 1960 to sing Don Carlo in Ernani, a role he also portrayed at the Salzburg Festival that year. Also in 1960, he sang Severo in Donizetti's Poliuto in a famous production that marked the return of Callas to La Scala. In February 1961, he debuted with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Rigoletto. Later that month he appeared in two productions at La Scala, Lucia di Lammermoor with Dame Joan Sutherland and I puritani with Renata Scotto. In December 1961, he returned to La Scala to sing his first and only performances of Rolando in Verdi's rarely heard opera La battaglia di Legnano. In 1962, he made his first and only appearance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Renato, returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing the title role in Rigoletto, and sang Conte di Luna at La Scala and the Salzburg Festival, in addition to several performances with the Vienna State Opera. His mother died in April of that year, of cancer, in Siena