Pier Miranda Ferraro

Pier Miranda Ferraro (30 October 1924 – 18 January 2008) was an Italian operatic tenor who had an active international opera career from 1951 through 1981.

Other important roles in his performance repertoire included Radames in Verdi's Aida, Alvaro in La Forza del Destino, and des Grieux in Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut.

[1] Although he was a gifted singer and had a highly impressive list of performance credits, he never achieved the international recognition enjoyed by his most important contemporaries, such as Franco Corelli or Mario Del Monaco.

[4] In 1959, Ferraro sang the role of Gualtiero of Vincenzo Bellini’s Il pirata with Maria Callas as Imogene in a concert version presented by the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall.

[2][3] Ferraro retired from the opera stage in 1981 after a biking accident caused injuries which inhibited his ability to move freely.

He began a second career as a voice teacher and he eventually became the head of the vocal department at the Milan Conservatory, a position he held for fifteen years.

However, Ferraro did appear on the Italian radio a number of times with a particularly important performance of Otello being broadcast from the Doge's Palace in Venice in August 1970.