Rolando Panerai

Rolando Panerai (born on October 17, 1924) Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career in both comic and dramatic roles.

Rolando Panerai was born in Campi Bisenzio, near Florence, Italy. He studied with Frazzi in Florence and Armani and Giulia Tess in Milan. Panerai made his debut as the pharaon in Rossini's Mosè in Egitto at the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples in 1947.

Other important debuts, both in 1951, were as Simon Boccanegra in Simon Boccanegra in Bergamo and as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at La Scala in Milan. He sang in many rarely performed Verdi opera's on radio broadcast for RAI in 1951 (to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Verdi's death), such as Giovanna d'Arco, La battaglia di Legnano, and Aroldo.

Later roles included most of the great Verdi baritone roles, particularly as the title character in Rigoletto, The Count of Luna in Il trovatore, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, Marquis of Posa in Don Carlos, Amonasro in Aida.

Rolando Panerai has more than 150 operas in his repertory. He is best-known for comic roles: Ford in Falstaff (his signature role), Gianni Schicchi, Figaro in Nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and both Guglielmo and Alfonso in Così fan tutte; also, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, both Belcore and Dulcamara in Elisir d'amore, and Malatesta and the title role in Don Pasquale.

He possesses a warm, appealing voice, with a very comfortable, relaxed technique and effortless, ringing high notes. He has enjoyed a remarkably long and distinguished career singing Germont as recently as the year 2000 in a French televised production of La traviata, next to José Cura and Eteri Gvazava, his voice in very good shape for a man of 76. His acting skills and stage charisma were appreciated by great directors such as Giorgio Strehler, Franco Zeffirelli and Luchino Visconti.

He has been one of the best-known exponents of Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini for many years, singing the role in Florence as recently as 2006, at the age of 82. Recently Rolando Panerai has sung at the Paris Opera, in the Staatsoper, Frankfurt and at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Panerai left an impressive discography, often partnering with Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano, as in: Il Trovatore, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci and La bohème. He also recorded a notable Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, opposite Renata Scotto and Carlo Bergonzi, and Germont La Traviata, opposite Beverly Sills and Nicolai Gedda. He plays Ford in four different recordings of Verdi's Falstaff, opposite such famous interpreters of the title role as Tito Gobbi, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Giuseppe Taddei (the latter on video, under Herbert von Karajan). He also recorded the title role. Perhaps his strangest, most atypical recorded role is Amfortas in an Italian performance of Parsifal, with Maria Callas and Boris Christoff.

He can be seen on video as Ford; Figaro in The Barber of Seville; and in Concert on the A Bolshoi Opera Night (DVD).

Sources

• Alain Pâris, Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
• 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
• Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6