Paolo Montarsolo
Italian singer (1925–2006)
Paolo Montarsolo (16 March 1925 – 31 August 2006) was an Italian operatic bass particularly associated with buffo roles.
Biography
Montarsolo was born in Portici. After vocal studies in Naples and Milan, he made his debut at the Teatro San Carlo in 1949 and at La Scala in 1951, first singing small roles but quickly established himself in buffo roles in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioachino Rossini, and taking part in many revivals of 18th-century operas by composers such as
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Luigi Cherubini, Domenico Cimarosa, Giovanni Paisiello, etc.
In 1954, he began appearing outside Italy, notably in Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, London, Glyndebourne, and made his American debut in 1957 at the Dallas Opera, subsequently appearing at the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Besides the 18th- and 19th-century Italian repertoire, he also gained considerable acclaim in character roles such as Fra Melitone, Geronte, Gianni Schicchi, Baron Ochs, the Doctor in Wozzeck, as well as roles in many contemporary works by Rota, Tosatti, etc.
He retired from the stage in 1997, but remained active as a stage director and teacher. He died in Rome in 2006.
Sources
Guide de l'opéra, Roland Mancini & Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, Fayard, 1986.
Opera News, Obituaries, November 2006.
The public source identifies “Paolo Montarsolo” as italian singer (1925–2006). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paolo, Montarsolo and Italian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q2420379. VIAF identifies the subject as 17408270. The Library of Congress control number is n83065677. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2006, 1949 and 1951.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paolo Montarsolo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.