Francesco Tamagno

Francesco Tamagno (Turin, December 28, 1850 - Varese, August 31, 1905), was an Italian tenor who developed his career with enormous success in Europe and America in the last quarter of the 19th century. He gained particular prominence as tenor in the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello in 1887. His voice is documented on sound recordings.

Musical importance

Tamagno, the most famous tenor of his day, performed in twenty-six countries and gained fame for the power of his voice, especially in the higher register. Critics compared the sound of his voice to that of a trumpet or a cannon (in Italy this type of voice is known as tenore robusto or tenore di forza ). Tamagno's vocal range reached high C sharp early in his career, but his recordings demonstrate his ability, even in his maturity, to sing smoothly and modulate the dynamics of his voice with skill and sensitivity.

Though he became famous for being the first Othello at La Scala in Milan in 1887, he was also Gabriele Adorno in the 1881 premiere of Simon Boccanegra's revision, a noticeably more lyrical role. He also participated in the first performance of the Italian version of Don Carlo, at La Scala in 1884. Other notable premieres by Tamagno were those of María Tudor , by Carlos Gomes (1879), Il figliuol prodigo (1880) and Marion Delorme (1885), by Ponchielli, I Medici, by Leoncavallo and Messaline (1899), by Isidore de Lara.

He was recognized for his interpretations of other roles already installed in the repertoire, such as Manrico in Il trovatore, Don Álvaro in La forza del destino , the protagonists of Ernani, and Poliuto, Arnoldo in Guglielmo Tell, Leyden in Le prophete, Raoul in Les Huguenots, Vasco in L'Africaine, Robert in Robert le diable or Eleazar in La Juive. Also in several contemporary operas of his career, such as Radames in Aida, Samson in Samson et Dalila, Alim in Le roi de Lahore and John the Baptist in Hérodiade. Early in his career, before his voice became more robust, he was able to tackle a role as light as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor , thanks to his successful half-voice singing.

Tamagno sang in approximately fifty-five roles in operas and sacred works (including Verdi's Requiem and Stabat Mater de Rossini) during his solo career, which began in Turin in 1873 and spanned thirty-two years, cut short only by a cardiovascular condition that ended his life at the age of 54. Tamagno avoided frequenting the verista genre, in which he was not comfortable, due to his bel canto training, with the exception of Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier, with whom he studied the role in 1898. He also worked with Puccini, in 1892, in the revival, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, of his early opera Edgar, which, despite the performance of Tamagno, failed to settle in the great repertoire. He also participated in some performances of Cavalleria Rusticana , by Pietro Mascagni, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1894.

Like all singers, however, he had his vocal flaws and bad habits. The vibrant and energetic tone of his voice, while emotional, could not be described as "soft"; or & # 34; seductive & # 34;, which reduced his effectiveness in the most intimate passages of love duets, such as that of Othello with Desdemona that closes the first act of Otello . He was not especially faithful to the scores, arguing that he was an emotional artist, who delivered his music from the "heart", and not from the "head". Critics criticized his efforts to maximize the emotional aspect of his performances, highlighting the high notes, which he dragged out longer than necessary. He was also criticized for not rigorously following the rhythm set by the conductors.

Life and career

Tamagno on the role of Otello, at the premiere in La Scala in 1887

Tamagno's exceptional vocal skills manifested early in his youth, which led him to take singing lessons at the Liceo Musicale in his hometown with the composer Carlo Pedrotti. There he also gained experience as a choir member.Pedrotti was director of the Teatro Regio, where he allowed him to appear in small roles. In 1874 he debuted with a leading role, in Palermo, with Riccardo's Un ballo in maschera , with great success. He then obtained contracts in Ferrara, Rovigo, Venice and Barcelona, which paved the way for his debut at La Scala in 1877. In the scaligera company he continued to mature his voice, and was lucky enough to be able to work with Verdi himself. His voice acquired in these years a discipline that he had lacked until then. For ten years he participated in practically every opera in La Scala's seasons.

In the season of 1875 he sang in Spain, although he did not make his debut at the Teatro Real until 1886. In 1879 he undertook the first of his multiple and productive trips to Buenos Aires. His international career did not take off, however, until 1888, using the role of Verdi's Otello, which he had premiered in Milan the previous year, and which Verdi wrote with Tamagno's vocal characteristics in mind. The tenor traveled through all the operatic centers of Europe and America during the last two decades of the century, with Otello and the main roles of his repertoire.

Some of the most important conductors of his time, such as Franco Faccio, Luigi Mancinelli or Arturo Toscanini had Tamagno under their baton, and he had the most renowned singers of the time as co-stars. At his time he was heralded as the legitimate successor to Enrico Tamberlick, while Jean de Reszke was considered his greatest rival on the tenor string, although their repertoires only partially matched. Tamagno, for example, unlike Reszke, never wanted to play Wagnerian roles, even in Italian translation, because he considered the range of the heroic tenors required by Wagner too low for his vocal range.

Tamagno lived long enough to witness the rise of the young Enrico Caruso, who he went so far as to say would be the greatest Italian tenor of the 20th century . Both came to coincide on stage, in 1901, in a concert organized at La Scala by Toscanini, in commemoration of the recent death of Verdi. Tamagno sang his last Otello in Rome in 1903, at a gala performance given to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

From 1900 Tamagno began to suffer from a chronic heart condition that led to his withdrawal from the stage, although he continued to give recitals and concerts, the last of which was held in Ostend in 1904. He then retired to his villa in Varese, in Lombardy, where he suffered a heart attack, and died on August 31, 1905, at the age of 54.