Giuseppe Giacomini (1940-2021) was one of the greatest tenors active during the last 30 years of the 20th century. Despite the excellence of his singing, he never achieved the widespread fame accorded his exact contemporaries – Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Nevertheless, his career was quite successful; he appeared at all the major opera houses, always to great acclaim. He achieved a full slate of honors and seemed to get better as he aged. Giacomini’s prizes and honors include the title Kammersänger of the Staatsoper in Wien, the Gold Viotti, the Giovanni Zenatello Prize, the CA Capelli Prize, the Gold Mascagni, and the Giovanni Martinelli Prize. He was also Commendatore of the Ordine di San Gregorio Magno, a Vatican order of knighthood.

I last heard him in Sicily about 25 years ago in an outdoor performance of Turandot at the Giardini Bellini outside of Catania. The two soprano leads were inferior, but he was terrific. Nessun Dorma drove the Sicilians to a frenzied demand for an encore which the conductor refused.

He gave 85 performances at the Met between 1976 and 1988. He continued to sing well into his 60s without losing effectiveness. Known to his friends and admirers as ‘Bepi’, he had a winning personality and was free of the flamboyance commonly associated with a star tenor. His gentle personality may have lessened his fame. I have heard that he left the Met when he was at the peak of his powers because the company wouldn’t let him sing Otello mostly limiting the role to Placido Domingo whose voice did not have the full dramatic weight as did Giacomini’s. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this rumor.

Giacomini’s voice was a full-fledged dramatic tenor with a free top. He could shade his sound to the appropriate level of the music he sang. He sang all the standard Italian roles to great effect. The following excerpts, in addition to the one linked above, show why his services were always in high demand.

Otello’s entrance lasts only about half a minute, but in this brief span Verdi depicts the gullible general’s character in a flourish of direct and heroic tones. Esultate. Giacomini’s baritonal sound and command of the passagio make for fine reading of this great entrance. It doesn’t take long for Otello to lose his grasp on reality and bemoan his future as a cuckold. Ora e per sempre addio. The thunderous duet that closes Act 2 depicts Iago’s manipulation of Otello to the point of uxoricide. Sherill Milnes is the baritone. Si pel ciel.

Sticking to Verdi, Giacomini belts out Manrico’s ‘Di quella pira’ though the high C sounds more like a B natural to me. Listeners with perfect pitch can confirm or deny my suspicion. (Added Nov 28, 2024: I checked with a pitch pipe – it’s a B) Di quella pira. The tenor aria from La Forza del Destino is one of the finest anybody has ever written. Its recitative is better than most other composer’s arias. La vita e inferno. Giacomini’s performance of the aria is heroic.

Amilcare Pochielli’s only lasting opera is La Gioconda. The work’s most well-known aria is for the tenor. Cielo e mar starts Act 2. This recording, from a recital, shows Giacomini’s stentorian tones to great advantage.

Giacomini recorded Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana with Jessye Norman as Santuzza. The role was one not typical of those usually sung by the soprano, but she acquits herself well on the recording. Ah! lo vedi is the duet during which Turridu forcible rejects Santuzza whose virtue he has compromised. Giacomini was the only Italian in the cast of this complete recording which nevertheless holds up quite well against its numerous competitors. The Brindisi (Drinking Song) comes just before Turridu is challenged to his fatal duel with the husband of the woman with whom he has been carrying on an illicit affair.

Another verismo composer known for only one opera (Andrea Chenier) was Umberto Giordano. Tenors love to sing the title role as he has four arias. The best known of these is the first act Improvviso which tests a spinto tenor to his limit. It’s hard to understand how a composer could write as good an opera as Chenier and not reach that level again. Giacomini’s rendition of the aria is one of the finest available.

Finally, Puccini. E lucevan le stelle require grace more than force. Giacomini gives a fine and sensitive performance of the ubiquitous aria. Or son sei mesi is in Act 2 of The Girl of the Golden West. It is noteworthy for the blaze of B-flats that come near its end. Ch’ella mi creda occurs in the opera’s last act. It’s the hero’s wish that his lover Minnie not be told that he was hanged. Of course, she arrives to free him using a pistol as a debating point. The two then ride off together into the sunrise (they’re in California). Giacomini’s singing here is splendid.

He was a great tenor who deserves more recognition than he has received though his standing among opera aficionados is already assured.