Opera Singer. A dramatic tenor called, either in admiration or in derision, the "Brass Bull of Milan", he was considered his generation's premier exponent of Giuseppe Verdi's unjustly jealous Moor Otello. Initially a violin student he trained in Pesaro and later at the Rome Opera School, early-on forming a professional partnership with soprano Renata Tebaldi that was to last for many years. Del Monaco made his operatic debut at Milan's Teatro Puccini on December 31, 1940 as LT B.F. Pinkerton in Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", a part not really suited to his voice; throughout his career he preferred the heavier 'tenore robusto' roles such as the title lead of Umberto Giordano's story of the doomed poet of the French Revolution "Andrea Chenier", Leoncavallo's tragic clown Canio from "I Pagliacci", Puccini's painter Mario Cavaradossi in "Tosca", Manrico in Verdi's "Il Trovatore", and Radames from the same composer's "Aida". Del Monaco's 'signature piece' was to be the title role in Verdi's "Otello", which he sang, according to one estimate, 427 times in all of the world's leading opera houses; first heard at Covent Garden, London, in 1946, he made his 1950 American debut at San Francisco as Radames, and bowed at New York's Metropolitan Opera on November 27th of that same year as Des Grieux from Puccini's "Manon Lescaut", with Dorothy Kirsten in the title lead. Heard through the 1950s in New York, most of his later career was spent in Europe. He retired in 1975 leaving a large legacy of recordings, including complete readings of "Otello" and "Andrea Chenier", many of which are still available on CD, along with numerous live 'pirates'. At his death from chronic renal disease, he was, at his request, buried in his Otello costume.
Opera Singer. A dramatic tenor called, either in admiration or in derision, the "Brass Bull of Milan", he was considered his generation's premier exponent of Giuseppe Verdi's unjustly jealous Moor Otello. Initially a violin student he trained in Pesaro and later at the Rome Opera School, early-on forming a professional partnership with soprano Renata Tebaldi that was to last for many years. Del Monaco made his operatic debut at Milan's Teatro Puccini on December 31, 1940 as LT B.F. Pinkerton in Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", a part not really suited to his voice; throughout his career he preferred the heavier 'tenore robusto' roles such as the title lead of Umberto Giordano's story of the doomed poet of the French Revolution "Andrea Chenier", Leoncavallo's tragic clown Canio from "I Pagliacci", Puccini's painter Mario Cavaradossi in "Tosca", Manrico in Verdi's "Il Trovatore", and Radames from the same composer's "Aida". Del Monaco's 'signature piece' was to be the title role in Verdi's "Otello", which he sang, according to one estimate, 427 times in all of the world's leading opera houses; first heard at Covent Garden, London, in 1946, he made his 1950 American debut at San Francisco as Radames, and bowed at New York's Metropolitan Opera on November 27th of that same year as Des Grieux from Puccini's "Manon Lescaut", with Dorothy Kirsten in the title lead. Heard through the 1950s in New York, most of his later career was spent in Europe. He retired in 1975 leaving a large legacy of recordings, including complete readings of "Otello" and "Andrea Chenier", many of which are still available on CD, along with numerous live 'pirates'. At his death from chronic renal disease, he was, at his request, buried in his Otello costume.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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