Cesare Siepi

Cesare Siepi (February 10, 1923 – July 5, 2010) was an Italian operatic bass born in Milan who also appeared on Broadway, with credits including Bravo Giovanni and Carmelina, performing on Broadway from 1962 to 1979. Though his year of birth has been debated, 1923 is given as the official date. He attended the music conservatory in Milan briefly and largely considered himself self-taught, having begun his musical life singing in a madrigal group.

Siepi made his operatic debut in 1941 in Schio, near Vicenza, singing the role of Sparafucile in Rigoletto. As an opponent of the fascist regime, he fled to Switzerland during World War II, interrupting his early career. Once the war ended, his professional ascent was rapid. A notable performance as Zaccaria in Nabucco at La Fenice in Venice led to the first of numerous engagements at La Scala, Milan, where he sang Verdi bass roles, the title role in Boito's Mefistofele under Arturo Toscanini, Colline in La bohème, and roles in La Gioconda, La favorite, and I puritani.

His international career began in 1947 with a debut at the Liceu in Barcelona in Donizetti's Anna Bolena. His reputation abroad was firmly established in 1950, when Rudolf Bing engaged him to open the Metropolitan Opera season as King Philip II in Don Carlos. Siepi remained principal bass at the Met until 1974, taking on roles including Boris Godunov, sung in English, and Gurnemanz in Parsifal, sung in German. That same year, 1950, he also made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he appeared regularly through the mid-1970s.

In 1953, Siepi debuted at the Salzburg Festival in a production of Don Giovanni conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, staged by Herbert Graf, and designed by Clemens Holzmeister. The title role became among the most closely identified of his career, a distinction it had previously held for the Italian bass Ezio Pinza of the preceding generation. The 1953 Salzburg performance was released on CD, and a 1954 mounting of the same production was filmed in color by Paul Czinner and released in 1955. At the Vienna State Opera, Siepi sang Don Giovanni in 43 performances, more than any other singer in the modern era except Eberhard Wächter. A 1967 Vienna production staged by Otto Schenk and designed by Luciano Damiani interpreted the opera through the lens of commedia dell'arte, emphasizing its comic and ironic dimensions, a concept that conductor Josef Krips openly opposed. Among the other roles Siepi performed in Vienna were Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Padre Guardiano in a 1974 production of La forza del destino conducted by Riccardo Muti, Méphistophélès in Faust, and Ramphis in Aida. His final Vienna appearance came in 1994, singing Oroveso in Norma at the Austria Center Vienna.

Siepi was also an active recital performer, particularly through Community Concerts under Columbia Artist Management, and was regarded as a sensitive interpreter of German Lieder. He married Met ballerina Louellen Sibley, and the couple had two children.

His last studio recording was made in 1976 for RCA, in which he sang the role of the old King Archibaldo in Italo Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re, alongside Anna Moffo and Plácido Domingo. He continued performing regularly into the 1980s, and his formal farewell to the operatic stage took place on April 21, 1989, at the Teatro Carani in Sassuolo. Siepi died on July 5, 2010, at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, following a stroke suffered more than a week earlier.