Fernando Corena
Basso buffo Fernando Corena, heralded as the true successor to comic bass Salvatore Baccaloni, began his career singing non-comic roles just as did the imposing Baccaloni. A gift for buffoonery, however, cleared the way for his concentration on comic roles and there it was that he achieved his reputation. Although sturdy and of considerable volume, his voice was less flexible than Baccaloni's, less able to bend itself around the complexities of such arias as Bartolo's A un dottor or any of the other patter songs that populated his repertory. Still, his involvement with each of his impersonations was so complete that technical shortcomings could be set aside.
Initially, Corena seemed headed for the priesthood, preparing himself at Fribourg University for holy orders. After winning a singing contest, however, he turned to the pursuit of a career in music. He trained first in his native city beginning in 1937 and later, encouraged by Italian conductor Vittorio Gui, traveled to Milan to study with Enrico Romani. After an unofficial debut there, he returned to Switzerland for the duration of WWII, performing on radio broadcasts and appearing in opera at Zurich's Stadttheater. Corena's official debut took place in Trieste in 1947, when he sang Varlaam in Boris Godunov. Soon, he had offers from many parts of Italy and began singing such varied dramatic roles as Sparafucile (bass), Escamillo (bass baritone), and Scarpia (baritone). In 1949, he took part in the premiere of Petrassi's Il cordovano at La Scala. Although he did not fully surrender the serious bass/bass baritone repertory, he steadily moved into the buffo roles and found his career moving ever more swiftly upward.
Corena's Metropolitan Opera debut took place as Leporello on February 6, 1954, and he established himself almost immediately as a favorite singer in that house. For a quarter century, he all but owned the great comic roles, creating impossible to forget portraits as Dulcamara, the Sacristan (Tosca), Don Pasquale, both Bartolos, Falstaff, Melitone, Don Alfonso, Benoit, Gianni Schicchi, Sulpice, Mustafa, and Geronte. By the time he closed his Metropolitan career in 1978, he had sung 92 performances of the Sacristan alone.
Aside from his close relationship to New York, Corena enjoyed considerable success elsewhere; Chicago heard him in a variety of roles, comic and serious, beginning in 1956 when Leporello played off the Don Giovanni of Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. Other notable Chicago performances came in Le nozze di Figaro, Cosí fan Tutte, Il barbieri di Siviglia, Cenerentola, Turandot (Ping), and Thaïs (Palémon). The Edinburgh Festival welcomed Corena's Falstaff in 1956 and Covent Garden heard him for the first time in 1960, when he sang Rossini's Bartolo. In addition to Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Verona, and Buenos Aires, Corena appeared at Salzburg as Osmin in Giorgio Strehler's production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1965. Although he created an interesting character, Corena was found short of the deep bass resonance and flexibility demanded by the role. A frequent visitor to the recording studio, Corena left numerous recordings documenting his best-known roles; many were recorded on multiple occasions (Bartolo, Leporello, Sacristan, for examples) and one or two were from the serious repertory (Il Re in Aida). Although Corena's physical presence was necessary for fullest appreciation, he still managed to infuse his singing with abundant personality. There has been no one comparable since his retirement.
© TiVo
Discografia
34 album • Ordinato per Bestseller
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Puccini: Tosca
Leontyne Price, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Giuseppe Taddei, Fernando Corena, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1963
Disponibile in24-Bit/96 kHz Stereo -
Mozart: Don Giovanni (2024 Remaster)
Classica - Pubblicato da Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. il 1 gen 1959
La discografia ideale di QobuzDisponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Puccini: Il Trittico
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Robert Merrill, Fernando Corena, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Lamberto Gardelli
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1962
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Teresa Berganza, Manuel Ausensi, Ugo Benelli, Fernando Corena, Orchestra Rossini Di Napoli, Silvio Varviso
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1965
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Giacomo Puccini: Tosca (Complete Opera) (Live)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Metropolitan Theater, New York, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Renata Tebaldi, Leonard Warren, Fernando Corena, Peter Mark
Classica - Pubblicato da Music Manager il 31 ago 2020
Disponibile in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Bellini: La Sonnambula
Dame Joan Sutherland, Nicola Monti, Fernando Corena, Coro Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Richard Bonynge
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1962
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rossini : L'Italiana in Algeri
Teresa Berganza, Luigi Alva, Rolando Panerai, Fernando Corena, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Silvio Varviso
Opere integrali - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1964
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Donizetti: Don Pasquale
Graziella Sciutti, Juan Oncina, Tom Krause, Fernando Corena, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, István Kertész
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1991
La discografia ideale di QobuzDisponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Live at the Royal Festival Hall, 06/02/1961)
Carlo Maria Giulini, Philharmonia Orchestra, Fernando Corena, Elisabeth Söderström
Classica - Pubblicato da Ica Classics il 9 ott 2015
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Il Maestro Di Capella & Mozart Concert Arias
Fernando Corena, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Alberto Erede
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2014
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
GRANDI VOCI FERNANDO CORENA Una collana dedicata con registrazioni originali Decca e Deutsche Grammophon rimasterizzate con le tecniche più moderne che ne garantiscono eccellenza tecnica e artistica
Fernando Corena, Gioachino Rossini
Classica - Pubblicato da UME - Global Clearing House il 13 mag 2021
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore
Hilde Güden, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Renato Capecchi, Fernando Corena, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1956
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Donizetti: L'Elisir d'Amore
Hilde Güden, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Renato Capecchi, Fernando Corena, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1956
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Corena - In Orbit (Vol. 10)
Fernando Corena, Iller Pattacini, Cliff Adams Singers, Ernest Nicelli, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Alberto Erede
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2014
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca, S. 69 (Recorded 1957)
Opera - Pubblicato da Urania Records il 10 ago 1999
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore
Hilde Güden, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Fernando Corena
Opera - Pubblicato da Urania il 1 gen 2006
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia
Fernando Corena, Ettore Bastianini, Cesare Siepi
Opera - Pubblicato da Urania il 1 gen 2006
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Lebendige Vergangenheit - Fernando Corena
Classica - Pubblicato da Preiser Records il 28 dic 2004
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Fernando Corena / Classic Recital
Fernando Corena, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin , Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, James Walker
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1957
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Verdi: Falstaff; Cimarosa: Il maestro di Cappella – Excerpts (Opera Gala – Volume 14)
Fernando Corena, Sir Edward Downes, Argeo Quadri
Classica - Pubblicato da Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. il 13 nov 2020
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Verdi : Falstaff - Rossini & Donizetti (Opera Arias)
Fernando Corena, Sir Edward Downes, Alberto Erede, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, The New Symphony Orchestra of London
Classica - Pubblicato da Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. il 21 ago 2015
Disponibile in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo