Opera Scotland

Renato Capecchi Suggest updates

Born Cairo,  6 November 1923.

Died Milan, 30 June 1998.

Italian baritone.

Renato Capecchi enjoyed a long and successful career as a baritone, and later as a director.  While he is perhaps considered to have been mainly an exponent of the buffo tradition, he also sang several of the major dramatic parts including Rigoletto.

He studied singing and violin in Milan and Lausanne. In 1948 he won Italian Radio's national singing competition and in 1949 the international competition in Geneva.  His operatic debut followed the same year (Amonasro at Reggio Emilia).

His La Scala debut came in 1950 and  he worked at the New York Met between 1951-4.  At Covent Garden he sang both Verdi (Melitone 1962) and Rossini (Bartolo 1973). 

His career took him all over the world and to most of the European music festivals, including Aix-en-Provence and Edinburgh.

Capecchi visited the Edinburgh Festival four times over a short period from 1963 to 1971.  The first occasion was as a member of the San Carlo Opera from Naples.  In 1965 he was in a co-production between the Edinburgh and Holland Festivals.  1969 saw him join the company of the Teatro Comunale, Florence, while 1971 was co-production between Florence and Edinburgh.

He appeared in around thirty premiere performances.  These include Ghedini (Billy Budd;  Lord Inferno);  Napoli (Un curioso accidente) and Malipiero (La donna è mobile).  He performed over two hundred parts in around 170 operas.