Ettore Bastianini

Ettore Bastianini was born in Siena in September 1922, into a family of modest means. He worked as a coalman and later as a baker before turning seriously to singing, and made his début as a bass at the Ravenna opera in 1945 as Colline in *La bohème*. He continued as a bass through the late 1940s in regional Italian houses before retraining as a baritone in 1951 under the guidance of Luciano Bettarini in Florence — a vocal transition that opened the second and definitive phase of his career.

His baritone début was as Germont in *La traviata* at La Scala in 1952, and within five years he was the leading Verdi baritone of his generation. He sang regularly at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera (from 1953 to 1966), Covent Garden, the Salzburg Festival, and the Vienna State Opera through the 1950s and early 1960s. His central roles were Germont, the title role in *Rigoletto*, Renato in *Un ballo in maschera*, Carlo in *La forza del destino*, and Posa in *Don Carlo* — a Verdi baritone repertoire to which the dark, even quality of his voice was particularly suited. He worked extensively with Karajan, Solti and Toscanini in studio recording.

Bastianini was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1962 and continued to perform — refusing to acknowledge his illness publicly — until his voice failed in 1965. He died in Sirmione, on Lake Garda, in January 1967, aged forty-four. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his Verdi work from the 1950s.