Word: giovanni
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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NICOLAI GEDDA, 31. born in Stockholm of Russian-Swedish parents (his father was a baritone in the Don Cossack Chorus), did well in his Met debut as Faust, outdid himself as Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Anatol in Vanessa. Tall for a tenor-his pressagent, measuring with a basketball coach's rubber ruler, claims 6 ft. 3 in. -Gedda offers a clear, sweet voice that may lack warmth ("Champagne rather than Chianti," says one critic), but has strength and purity. His acting is intelligent, his pronunciation unusually correct for the opera stage; he is a linguist, speaks seven languages...
...Becque with Mary Martin in South Pacific. A onetime baritone, Tozzi has a deep, warm voice in which much of the baritone quality persists, also has fine stage presence and plenty of humor (as he demonstrated as the Old Doctor in Vanessa). Tozzi ought to make a good Don Giovanni in time...
...Maria Meneghini Callas from all of Italy's state-subsidized opera houses. Her offense: on opening night at the Rome Opera, Callas had walked out of a performance of Bellini's Norma after the first act, leaving behind her a glittering audience of notables, including President Giovanni Gronchi...
Maria Callas' husband, wealthy retired Manufacturer Giovanni Battista Meneghini, announced that "she is very, very, very sick." Callas herself apologized to President Gronchi, spoke to the press of a "lowering of the voice" ("It has happened to many singers before me, and now it was my turn"). The manager of the Rome opera house had still another explanation: Callas had celebrated New Year's Eve at a Rome nightclub "without due precautions...
Died. Adeodato Giovanni Cardinal Piazza, 73, longtime secretary of the Vatican's Sacred Congregation of the Consistory; of pneumonia following two cerebral strokes; in Rome (see RELIGION...