Tito Gobbi

Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa in October 1913, into a wealthy local family. He read law at the University of Padua before turning to singing in his early twenties and studying with Giulio Crimi in Rome — winning the Vienna international singing competition in 1936 the same year as his official début, in a comprimario role at the Teatro Adriano in Rome. He joined the Teatro Reale in Rome in 1937 and through the war years sang in regional Italian houses.

His international career across the post-war years made him one of the central baritones of the international operatic stage. His core repertoire was the dramatic Verdi roles — the title role in *Rigoletto*, Iago, the title role in *Falstaff*, Renato in *Un ballo in maschera*, Posa in *Don Carlo*, Amonasro in *Aida*, the title role in *Simon Boccanegra*, and Macbeth — and the verismo roles, particularly Scarpia in *Tosca* (the role for which he was famously partnered with Maria Callas at Covent Garden in 1964 under Carlo Maria Giulini). He sang regularly at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera. He worked extensively in films across the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in over twenty-five productions.

Gobbi retired from staged opera in 1979 and devoted his last decade to directing and to running the international opera school he founded in Florence. He died in Rome in March 1984. Music Preserved’s archive includes a substantial range of his Verdi and verismo work, particularly his partnership with Callas.