Ezio Pinza

Ezio Fortunato Pinza was born in Rome on May 18, 1892, the seventh child in his family and the first to survive infancy. He grew up in Ravenna, on Italy's Adriatic coast, and trained at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna, though he never learned to read music and acquired all his repertoire by ear. He made his operatic debut in 1914 at age 22, singing the role of Oroveso in Norma at Cremona. His early years also included four years of military service during World War I, after which he resumed his career in Rome in 1919. As a young man he was devoted to bicycle racing, a pursuit he later credited with building the lung capacity that distinguished his voice.

Pinza made his debut at La Scala, Milan, in February 1922, working under conductor Arturo Toscanini, whose exacting standards shaped his development over the following seasons. His Metropolitan Opera debut came in November 1926 in Spontini's La vestale, alongside soprano Rosa Ponselle. Over 22 seasons at the Met, Pinza appeared in more than 750 performances of 50 operas, accumulating a repertoire of approximately 95 roles. Among the most closely identified with him was Don Giovanni, which he first sang at the Met in 1929, later adding Mozart's Figaro in 1940 and Sarastro in 1942. His colleagues at the Met included Rosa Ponselle, Amelita Galli-Curci, Elisabeth Rethberg, Maria Jeritza, Giovanni Martinelli, Beniamino Gigli, Lawrence Tibbett, and Giuseppe De Luca. Beyond New York, Pinza sang at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, between 1930 and 1939, performed at the Salzburg Festival from 1934 to 1937 at the invitation of conductor Bruno Walter, and appeared at the San Francisco Opera in 26 roles across 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. In October 1947, he sang the role of Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust at the San Francisco Opera opposite his daughter, soprano Claudia Pinza Bozzolla, who performed the role of Marguerite.

Pinza also performed under Toscanini's baton outside the opera house. In 1935 he served as bass soloist in performances of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, one of which was broadcast by CBS and later released on LP and CD. He also appeared in Toscanini's February 6, 1938, NBC Symphony Orchestra broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, also at Carnegie Hall.

In March 1942, Pinza was arrested by the FBI at his New York home and detained at Ellis Island for nearly three months, along with hundreds of other Italian-Americans suspected of Axis sympathies during World War II. At the time of his detention he was four months away from obtaining U.S. citizenship. The experience caused him severe and lasting psychological distress. Fellow basso Norman Cordon, considered a rival of Pinza's at the Met, later privately claimed to have informed the FBI that Pinza was a fascist sympathizer. Shortly after his release, Pinza and Cordon performed together at the Met in Don Giovanni, with Pinza in the title role and Cordon as the Commendatore.

Pinza resigned from the Metropolitan Opera in 1948 and turned to Broadway, where he appeared from 1949 to 1954. In April 1949 he originated the role of French planter Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, a performance that included his rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening" and made him a nationally recognized figure. In 1950 he received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for that role. In 1954 he appeared in the Broadway production of Fanny opposite Florence Henderson. On March 28, 1954, Pinza and Henderson were featured in the television special General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, broadcast across all four American television networks. In 1953 he had starred in his own NBC situation comedy, Bonino. His film appearances began with Carnegie Hall in 1947.

Pinza was married twice. With his first wife, Augusta Cassinelli, he had a daughter, Claudia Pinza Bozzolla, who became an opera singer, vocal coach, and director. In 1940 he married Doris Leak, described by The New York Times as a member of the Metropolitan Opera's corps de ballet; they had three children: Clelia, Pietro, and Gloria. Clelia's daughter, journalist Sarah Goodyear, wrote about her grandfather's wartime detention in The Village Voice in 2000. The Metropolitan Opera honored Pinza by dedicating all the water fountains at the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center to him.

A series of heart attacks led to a stroke on May 1, 1957. Pinza died in his sleep of a heart attack on May 9, 1957, at the age of 64, in Stamford, Connecticut. His funeral was held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and he is interred at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut. His memoirs, completed shortly before his death, were published in 1958 by Rinehart & Company.