Ettore Panizza

Panizza possessed technical mastery and was popular and influential during his time, widely admired by Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini, among others.

He worked at the Teatro Colón in 1908, 1909, 1921, 1927 (Claudia Muzio as Tosca and in La bohème), 1929 (Turandot with Rosa Raisa), 1930, 1934 (Carmen with Gabriela Besanzoni), 1935, 1936, 1939 (Boris Godunov, La traviata, Macbeth, Turandot, Aida with Bizancio with Gina Cigna), 1942 (Aida and Simon Boccanegra with Zinka Milanov and Leonard Warren), 1943 (Falstaff), 1944 (Bizancio), 1945 (Aurora), 1946, 1947 (Tosca and Andrea Chénier with Maria Caniglia and Beniamino Gigli), 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952 (Madama Butterfly with Victoria de los Ángeles), 1954 and 1955.

He heard British soprano Eva Turner in 1924 as Madama Butterfly[3] and recommended her to Toscanini, launching her impressive international career (as also did the young conductor Antonino Votto).

[1] Among the many premieres he conducted were Francesca da Rimini and Conchita by Riccardo Zandonai, Sly by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, and The Island God by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Panizza composed four operas; Il fidanzato del mare (1897), Medio Evo Latino (1900), Aurora (1908), his most successful work (the tenor aria "Alta en el cielo" in the second Spanish version became the patriotic song school children sing to the flag) and Bizancio (1939).