Tito Gobbi was born on October 24, 1913, and died on March 5, 1984. He was an Italian operatic baritone who became well-known worldwide for his singing.

Gobbi began his operatic career in 1935 in Gubbio, Italy, where he performed the role of Count Rodolfo in Bellini’s La sonnambula. He soon performed in Italy’s most important opera houses. By the time he retired in 1979, he had performed in nearly 100 different operatic roles. These roles included works by composers such as Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and Alban Berg.

Throughout his career, Gobbi sang in over 25 films. Starting in the mid-1960s, he also directed the staging of about ten different operas. These operas were performed in nearly 35 productions across Europe and North America, including many in Chicago at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Gobbi and his wife, Tilde De Rensis, had a daughter named Cecilia. Cecilia now manages the "Associazione Musicale Tito Gobbi," an organization that works to preserve and honor her father’s contributions to opera. Gobbi was also the brother-in-law of Boris Christoff, a famous Bulgarian-born bass who performed with him at Covent Garden.

Gobbi retired in 1979 and passed away in Rome in 1984 at the age of 70.

Early life

Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa. He started studying law at the University of Padua. During this time, a family friend, Baron Agostino Zanchetta, noticed his talent and encouraged him to study singing. To pursue this, Gobbi moved to Rome in 1932 to study with Giulio Crimi, a famous Italian tenor from an earlier time. Crimi had performed in the first productions of Puccini's Il trittico and in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini. At Gobbi's first audition, Tilde De Rensis, the daughter of musicologist Raphael De Rensis, played the piano. In 1937, Tilde became Gobbi's wife.

Operatic career

In 1935, he made his debut in Gubbio, singing the role of Count Rodolfo in Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula. In 1937, he first performed the role of Germont in La traviata in Rome at Teatro Adriano. However, during the 1935–1936 season at La Scala in Milan, he worked as an understudy, gaining valuable experience. His first performance there was as the Herald in Orsèolo by Ildebrando Pizzetti. In 1942, he debuted at La Scala as Belcore in L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti, conducted by Tullio Serafin. Under Serafin's guidance, he prepared many roles, including Scarpia, Rigoletto, and Simon Boccanegra, which became important to his career. He also performed at the Rome Opera starting in 1938, including the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly under conductor Victor de Sabata.

Other important Italian venues during these years included La Fenice in Venice, where he performed as Marcello in La bohème in 1941 and as Sharpless in 1942. At the Teatro Communale in Florence in 1941, he sang the role of Hidraot in Gluck's Armide, and at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste in 1942 and 1943, he performed as the title character in L'Orfeo.

In 1942, he performed his first Falstaff at La Scala under de Sabata and also sang the protagonist in Alban Berg's Wozzeck, which was the first Italian performance of the opera. He later performed Falstaff again in Italy and in Vienna under Karl Böhm.

During these years, he also worked in films, including some filmed operas, such as L'arlesiana by Cilea with Licia Albanese in 1938.

After World War II, his international career grew. He appeared at the San Francisco Opera in 1948 and at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1950. He sang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1954 to 1974 and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1956 as Scarpia in Tosca. In 1974, he performed his final appearance at Covent Garden, where he was admired for his musical skill and acting ability.

There was one notable incident with Covent Garden in 1955. He was hired to play Iago in a new production of Otello but was late for rehearsals. The new music director, Rafael Kubelík, fired him. The company's baritone, Otakar Kraus, took over the role. Later, Kubelík apologized to Gobbi, and Gobbi returned to Covent Garden as Rigoletto the following summer.

Early in his career, he appeared in films between 1937 and 1959, including The Barber of Seville (1946, starring Ferruccio Tagliavini) and the drama Before Him All Rome Trembled (1946). He also starred in the 1949 British film The Glass Mountain, which introduced him to a wider audience. In 1950, he played himself in the British film Soho Conspiracy. By the time of his death, he had appeared in about 25 films, both singing and speaking parts. From the 1940s onward, he provided the singing voice for Anthony Quinn in Cavalleria rusticana (1953) and for the title character in Rigoletto e la sua tragedia (1957).

In the 1960s, Gobbi began directing operas. One example was his 1965 production of Simon Boccanegra at Covent Garden, which he later staged in Chicago. He also sang the title role in three productions he directed, the last in Rome in 1975. He directed about ten different operas between 1965 and 1982, with Tosca being the most frequently staged. Other operas included The Barber of Seville, Otello, and Gianni Schicchi. These were performed nearly 40 times by opera companies in Europe and North America, most notably by the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Gobbi sang the role of Scarpia in Tosca nearly a thousand times. A notable production was Franco Zeffirelli's Tosca at Covent Garden in 1964, which was broadcast live on British television. This performance is now available on DVD. Gobbi and Maria Callas had previously recorded Tosca together in 1953, with Giuseppe Di Stefano and Victor de Sabata. This recording is considered one of the finest ever made and remains widely available. Gobbi and Callas were close collaborators, and he described working with her as "not performing but living."

Gobbi was also known for his performances as Iago and Falstaff, which are available on CD. He also performed in Mozart roles, such as Don Giovanni and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. In 1968, he participated in the first opera telecast in Australia, Tosca, with Marie Collier and Donald Smith.

Publications

After retiring, Gobbi began writing and created two books. The first book, Tito Gobbi: My Life, was his own story. He received help from a writer named Ida Cook, and the book was published in 1979. Five years later, he wrote Tito Gobbi and His World of Italian Opera. In this book, he talked about many operas he performed in or directed, and he gave information about the history of the operas, their composers, and the productions.

In the chapter about Tosca, Gobbi provided a detailed look at each character in the opera, including those with smaller roles. For Scarpia, a main character, he said, "I can fairly claim to know pretty well," and he spent three pages discussing the character based on his experiences performing the role over many years.

Selected filmography

Opera Titles and Their Release Years:
• Forbidden Music (1942)
• Before Him All Rome Trembled (1946)
• O sole mio (1946)
• The Barber of Seville (1947)
• Mad About Opera (1948)
• The Lady of the Camellias (1947)
• The Glass Mountain (1949)
• The Force of Destiny (1950)
• Soho Conspiracy (1950)
• The Firebird (1952)