Tito Gobbi

He made his operatic debut in Gubbio in 1935 as Count Rodolfo in Bellini's La sonnambula and quickly appeared in Italy's major opera houses.

To do so, Gobbi moved to Rome in 1932 to study under Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, who had sung in the first performances of Puccini's Il trittico as well as in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini.

But working at La Scala in Milan for the 1935–1936 season as an understudy, gave him a breadth of experience and his first appearance there on stage was as the Herald in Ildebrando Pizzetti's Orsèolo.

He also appeared at the Rome Opera from 1938 onward in stage productions such as singing the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly under conductor Victor de Sabata.

In Rome in 1942 he performed his first Falstaff at La Scala under de Sabata and, in direct contrast, was the protagonist in Alban Berg's Wozzeck sung in November.

The year 1974 also saw the last of Gobbi's numerous appearances at Covent Garden, where he had been much admired by the public and critics alike for his sensitive musicianship as well as for his acting talent and interpretive insights.

Early in his career he appeared in a number of motion pictures between 1937 and 1959,[2] including some filmed operas such as The Barber of Seville (in 1946 starring Ferruccio Tagliavini) as well a contemporary drama in 1946, Before Him All Rome Trembled.

In a return to that house, Soprano Maria Callas sang the title role, conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario.

Act 2 of the production was broadcast live on British television on 9 February 1964[7] in what must be one of the most acclaimed dramatic interpretations of all recorded operatic repertoire.

Gobbi and Callas had previously sung Tosca together in a classic 1953 EMI recording of the opera made in Milan, with Giuseppe Di Stefano as Cavaradossi and Victor de Sabata conducting.

[9] In 1968 he participated in the first opera telecast in Australia (Tosca, with Marie Collier in the title role and Donald Smith as Cavaradossi).

In the case of Tosca, he devotes a chapter in Tito Gobbi and His World of Italian Opera to an analytical examination of each character in the opera (even the minor ones) and, for Scarpia, whom he states "I can fairly claim to know pretty well.."[12] he devotes three pages to a detailed examination of the character as Gobbi has observed and played him over many years.