Opera Scotland

Rolando Panerai Suggest updates

Born Campi Bisenzio (near Florence), 17 October 1924.

Died 22 October 2019. 

Italian baritone.

Rolando Panerai was one of the leading Italian baritones in the decades after the Second World War,  He was noted for his performances in Mozart and Rossini roles, but was also successful in Donizetti and Verdi.  He worked with Callas on many occasions at major houses, including La Scala.

After training in Florence and Milan he made his debut at Naples in 1947, as Pharaoh in Rossini's Mosè.  Work quickly followed at all the major Italian houses, and he sang in the Festivals at Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence, as well as in Barcelona and Lisbon.  His Covent Garden debut in 1960 was in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

He can be heard on several classic recordings conducted by Karajan, beginning with Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.  That was followed by Luna in Il Trovatore with Callas and di Stefano, and Ford in Falstaff with Tito Gobbi.  He also appears on live recordings with Callas of Lucia di Lammermoor and La traviata.  He later made a second recording of Ford with Leonard Bernstein and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.