Word: rigoletto
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Died. Amelita Galli-Curci, 81, Italian-born coloratura soprano, one of the last survivors of the "golden age" of opera singers, a tiny Milanese with a flutelike voice who was a sensation at her 1908 debut in Rigoletto at Trani (a provincial Italian town where she was paid $60 a month), moved to the U.S. in 1916 to sing the great coloratura roles (Rosina, Lucia, Lakmé) with both the Metropolitan and Chicago Operas earning up to $15,000 a performance while on tour, retired in the 1930s to California but continued through her many recordings to haunt opera buffs...
Four Pounds, Two Titles. Despite all this social activity, not to mention Rigoletto at the Bolshoi and a Russian circus, Salinger managed to squeeze in a little duty. He toured the Izvestia and Pravda plants, talked with newsmen in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev-all off the record...
...than makes up for his vocal defects by embellishing each role with small dramatic touches of his own-a twitch here, a little shuffle of surprise there-that bring character to life. Son of a well-to-do Roman family, De Paolis made his debut as the Duke in Rigoletto at Bologna in 1919, later sang tenor leads at virtually every major house in Europe. But, he says, "I never had a large voice; I knew that I could go on being a tenor of the second rank forever -but suppose I could become the best character actor...
...identified with any single role, but ranging between the romantic bel canto flights of Lucia di Lammermoor and the more declamatory style of Turandot or La Fanciulla del West, he has created some memorable characterizations: Don Jose in Carmen, Rodolfo in La Boheme, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto...
...that wasn't macaroni. Achieving the "fondest dream" of his 70 years, would-be Basso Profundo Buitoni hired Manhattan's Carnegie Hall and packed it with friends and employees from his Hackensack, N.J., headquarters to make a rafter-rattling concert debut. Belting out arias from Rigoletto and Ernani, the Italian-born industrialist brought the momentous evening to a wildly bravoed climax by joining Metropolitan Opera Star Licia Albanese in a duet from Don Giovanni and smothering her with kisses as a reward for "carrying" him. "As Don Juan," appraised the New York Times, "Mr. Buitoni made...