Maestro FRANCO CORELLI

1921 2003

Franco was such a favorite among the public that he partnered Maria Callas in her famous return to the Met during 1965 in a magnificent production of Tosca. He also appeared at St. John´s University giving one of his first concerts to an audience composed mainly of students...and he was a sensation.

The seventies marked the last years of Corelli´s career. During this period Corelli seldom presented himself in public, he made numerous concerts all over the world with Renata Tebaldi who was also experiencing the last years of her singing career.

On 1971 he sang the role of Edgardo in Donizetti´s Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met and obtained a very mixed public opinion. On the contrary, he impressed the new yorkers the subsequent month with his impeccable interpretation of Werther with Christa Ludwig as his Charlotte.

The last role Franco Corelli added to his repertory was MacDuff in Verdi´s Macbeth opposite Sherrill Milnes and Grace Bumbry, which he sang with great acclaim at the Memphis Municipal Auditorium on 1973. Franco´s last RAI film took place on May of the current year when he joined forces with Celestina Casapietra and Piero Cappuccilli to incarnate one of his best roles, Andrea Chenier.
Franco Corelli retired form the stage, still in great voice, in 1976 with a performance of La Boheme at Torre del Lago. He was the last and greatest tenore di forza of the postwar era, owner of a powerful, vibrant tenor with a thrilling, obscure timbre, and a brilliant, ringing top.

Nowadays Franco Corelli spends his time as a singing teacher in New York and Milan. He is also president of the annual singing competition that carries his name; "Concorso lirico internazionale Franco Corelli," which takes place every summer in Italy.

However, he is and will be missed in the roles that made him the legend he is. In my opinion, leading roles such as Verdi´s Don Carlo, Radames in "Aida", Manrico in "Il Trovatore", Don Alvaro in "La Forza del Destino" and Ernani, the verismo roles of Turiddu in "Cavalleria Rusticana", Don Jose in "Carmen", Maurizio in "Adriana Lecouvreur" and Andrea Chenier, Puccini´s Calaf in "Turandot", Cavaradossi in "Tosca" and Dick Johnson in "La fanciulla del West", and many more like Enzo Grimaldo in "La Gioconda", Pollione in "Norma", Poliuto and Raoul in "Gli Ugonotti" will remain in the hands of this great artist for a long time.