Obituary, Giuseppe Giacomini (1940-2021)

The Italian dramatic tenor Giuseppe Giacomini, one of the greatest Otellos of the twentieth century, has died aged 80.

Born in Veggiano in 1940, Giacomini studied with Marcello del Monaco, Elena Ceriati and Vladimiro Badiali, enjoying success in a number of Italian singing-competitions and making his professional opera debut as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in 1966; after spending several years honing his craft at mid-size opera-houses in Italy he made his first international appearance in 1970, singing Des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in Berlin. Italian repertoire would dominate his career, with key roles including Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West, Radamès in Aida (which he sang in the famous Mauro Bolognini production of the opera at the base of the Giza Pyramids in 1987), and most notably Verdi’s Otello, a role in which he had few equals among his peers or successors.

Publicity-shy and self-effacing, Giacomini’s unassuming appearance belied a voice of quite astonishing power and charisma, with a near-baritonal weight and colour in the middle and lower reaches and a ringing, open upper register that scythed easily through the thickest orchestration whilst retaining its intrinsic beauty. (All of these qualities can be heard to hair-raising effect on the video below, in which he partners a visibly awestruck Sherrill Milnes in a concert-performance of the great duet ‘Sì, pel ciel’ from Otello).

It was perhaps Giacomini’s lack of superficial star-power that led to his relative neglect by record-companies in an era which saw his contemporaries Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras elevated to household-name status; his modest discography includes unmissable recordings of Norma (with Renata Scotto and Grace Bumbry), Cavalleria rusticana (where his blazing confrontation with Jessye Norman’s Santuzza is the stuff of dreams are made on), Tosca with Carol Vaness and Riccardo Muti, and Andrea Chénier (opposite the similarly huge-voiced Ghena Dimitrova as Maddalena). His legacy on film is even sparser, though a DVD of La forza del destino from the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 (with Leontyne Price as Leonora) captures him at the height of his considerable powers.

In addition to his core repertoire, Giacomini also sang in the world premiere of Marco Tutino’s La Lupa (written to mark the centenary of Cavalleria rusticana in 1990), and championed several neglected Italian operas including Leoncavallo’s I Medici and Donizetti’s Fausta.

Giacomini continued to perform until his late sixties, appearing as Roberto in Puccini’s Le Villi and Canio in I Pagliacci in 2009 and touring China with the Shanghai Philharmonic the following year. His many awards and honours included the Giovanni Zenatello Prize, the Giovanni Martinelli Prize, and the title of Commendatore of the Ordine di San Gregorio Magno.

His death was announced by Rome Opera yesterday.

Giuseppe Giacomini - a selected discography