Raffaele Arié

Raffaele Arié (22 August 1920 – 17 March 1988) was a Bulgarian bass, particularly associated with the Italian and Russian repertories who was born in Sofia and died in Switzerland.

The bass made his debut at La Scala in 1947, as the King of Clubs in The Love for Three Oranges, directed by Giorgio Strehler.

He continued to appear at that theatre until 1973, in Boris Godunov (as Varlaam), Prince Igor, The Rake's Progress (as Trulove, which he also sang in the world premiere at the Teatro La Fenice, opposite Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1951), two works of Ildebrando Pizzetti, Eugene Onegin (as Prince Gremin, with Ettore Bastianini, Renata Tebaldi, and Giuseppe di Stefano), Guillaume Tell (as Walter Furst), Aida (as Ramfis, directed by Franco Zeffirelli), Faust (with Mirella Freni), Nabucco (opposite Elena Souliotis), Rigoletto (as Sparafucile, with Piero Cappuccilli, staged by Margherita Wallmann), Maria Stuarda (with Montserrat Caballé and Shirley Verrett), Linda di Chamounix (with Alfredo Kraus and Renato Bruson), and a concert of Shostakovich's Symphony No.

In 1953, he portrayed Raimondo Bidebent in Lucia di Lammermoor in Florence, opposite Maria Callas, Giacomo Lauri Volpi, and Bastianini, conducted by Franco Ghione.

During the production, Arié participated in a recording of the same opera for EMI, with Callas, di Stefano, and Tito Gobbi, conducted by Tullio Serafin.