Classical & Opera Codexery

Tito Gobbi

Italian baritone with nearly 100 roles and international renown.

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Tito Gobbi

via Wikipedia: Luciano Pavarotti · see source

He also appeared in motion pictures between 1937 and 1959, including filmed operas and a contemporary drama.[1] In retirement he wrote two books, an autobiography and a study of Italian opera.[2]

Last updated 2026-09-28 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Field
Operatic baritone and stage director
Nationality
Italian

Facts from the source article.

Making and release

During the 1960s Gobbi diversified into stage directing, with his first production being Verdi's Simon Boccanegra staged for Chicago shortly before the December 1965 Covent Garden production.[3] Others included The Barber of Seville presented three times in Chicago between 1969 and 1977, Otello in Pasadena, Chicago, and Thessalonika, and Gianni Schicchi in Florence, Edinburgh, Chicago, Zurich, and Monaco.[4] His performances in the initial Italian stagings of Berg's opera brought him fame; later, under Karl Böhm, he repeated the role in Italy and Vienna.[5] Three productions that he both directed and sang the title role in had their final one in Rome during 1975.[3]

From 1965 to 1982, Gobbi staged roughly ten distinct operas, with Tosca being the one he directed most frequently.[4] Companies in Europe and North America mounted these ten operas almost forty times in total, with the Lyric Opera of Chicago staging nine of them.[4] In 1968, Australia's first televised opera featured Gobbi in a Tosca alongside Marie Collier and Donald Smith.[6]

What the cited sources add

He was also famous for performances as Iago and Falstaff, and for Mozart roles including Don Giovanni and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro.[7] On 9 February 1964, British television broadcast the second act of that production live.[8] In 1953, Gobbi and Callas had earlier performed Tosca together for a celebrated EMI recording in Milan, with Giuseppe Di Stefano and conductor Victor de Sabata.[9] That 1953 album, later re-released on LP and then CD, is widely regarded as the greatest complete opera recording ever made.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gobbi's filmography, 1937 to 1955 on the Tito Gobbi Association's website. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, "Entry for Gobbi, Tito (1915–1984)" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tolansky 2013, p. 1276 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Stage Directions": list of operas, opera companies, and performers on the Tito Gobbi Association website. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Duffie 1982 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stephen Hall, "Opera conductor a humble wizard in Oz": an obituary of conductor Carlo Cillario who conducted this performance, The Australian (Sydney), 20 Decem (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Don Giovanni, live recording from 7/27/1950, published by Archipel, Catalog number ARPCD 0013-3; operadepot.com: The Marriage of Figaro 1963 Covent Garden, conducted by Georg Solti. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tony Locantro, "Maria Callas at Covent Garden, 1962 and 1964", Notes accompanying the 2002 EMI Classics DVD release (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Tito Gobbi" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gobbi 1984, p. 196 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Tito Gobbi (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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