ADDIO CESARE SIEPI THE LAST OF THE GREAT ITALIAN BASSOS (1923 – 2010)

(photos courtesy Charles Mintzer)

He was the first  Italian bass I ever heard and I remember well his last appearance on European television in 1978. It was in a programme called ‘Dal Ticino con sympatia’, he appeared alongside Mario Del Monaco who was the reason for us to watch the gala. Siepi sang, Del Monaco playbacked. Del Monaco remembers Siepi rather fondly in his memoirs even referring to an amusing matchmaking –by Elsa Maxwell -anecdote involving both Siepi and Ivonne de Carlo.
His voice was a resonant sonorous basso of exceptional quality which after  more than 35  years on the operatic stage still retained a good deal of its original beauty. A well-known hitch (sic) in his vocal delivery was his unorthodox pronunciation of the ‘r’. Nature had been generous to Siepi but sometimes the delivery lacked ‘chiaroscuri’ and could be throaty.
He left several recordings especially for Cetra and Decca.  On Broadway he sang the leading role in “Bravo Giovanni’, he also recorded the music. Siepi was the link between the generations of Pasero/Pinza and Cava, Giaotti and Raimondi. My favorite Siepi recordings are his Guardiano and Mefistofele for Decca and his rendition of Di sposo from Gomes's Salvator Rosa but also his live Giulio Cesare from 1950.

    
(as Colline)                                                    (as Figaro)

  
(as king Philips)                                                                      (role of Bassilio)

   
      (role Kaspar)                                                                    (as Boris)

  
      (as Ramfis)