Gino Penno

When Penno (birth name: Biagio Penno) served in the Italian army in WWII, an officer discovered his voice and recommended him to study singing, which he did after the war with Ettore Campogalliani in Mantova. He made his debut on April 4th, 1947, at La Scala, in Honegger's Jeanne d'arc au bûcher. Initially, he sang only small parts like Altoum, Roderigo or Normanno, many of them in contemporary works, always at La Scala or at La Fenice in Venice.

In 1949, he made the transition to lead roles, embarking on a career that was as splendid as short.

1949: Turiddu and Canio in Borgo S. Lorenzo, Pollione in Lugano, Ranuccio in Arcangelo by Guido Guerrini in Bologna.

1950: Pollione and Gabriele Adorno at La Fenice, Lohengrin in Reggio nell'Emilia, at the Carlo Felice in Genova, the Terme di Caracalla and the Teatro Alfieri in Torino, Siegmund at the Arena di Verona, Ernani in Trieste and for the radio in Rome, Achille in Iphigénie en Tauride and Hüon at the Maggio musicale in Florence, and at La Scala: Titzikian in Cherubini's Lodoïska, Dioneo in the world premiere of L'allegra brigata by Malipiero, Cavaradossi, Golitsyn and Bacchus.

1951: Lohengrin in Modena, Lisbon and Catania, Pollione in Catania and at the Terme di Caracalla, Gabriele Adorno in Wiesbaden, Stuttgart and Munich, Foresto at La Fenice, Arrigo (La battaglia di Legnano) at the Regio in Parma, Fernand Cortez and Carlo VII (Giovanna d'Arco) at the San Carlo in Naples, Carlo VII also at the Paris Opéra.

1952: Pollione, Sisera (Dèbora e Jaéle by Pizzetti), Macduff, and Monteverdi's mass Il vespro della Beata Vergine at La Scala; Don Carlo and Pollione at the San Carlo, Lohengrin and Gabriele Adorno in Bologna, Calaf in Naples, Radamès in Bergamo, Cavaradossi at the Paris Opéra-Comique.

1953: Manrico in Florence, at the San Carlo and at La Scala, Giasone (with Callas, of course) and Grigorij at La Scala, Aroldo in Florence, Siegmund in Parma, Pollione at the Paris Opéra.

1954: Alvaro and Lohengrin at the San Carlo, Manrico in Philadelphia; Alvaro, Manrico, Radamès, Pollione and Canio at the Metropolitan Opera; Alvaro, Gabriele Adorno, Manrico, Radamès and Canio in Rio de Janeiro; Alvaro at the Liceu in Barcelona and in Rome.

1955: Manrico in Bordeaux and Monte Carlo, Radamès at Covent Garden and in Sanremo.

1956: Grigorij at La Scala, Alvaro and Manrico at the Met. He had by then serious vocal problems, and the Met cancelled his contract.

He appeared for the last time on 30 March 1958 as Canio, in La Spezia.

The rest of his professional life, he was a bank clerk in Milano.

Reference 1: Enciclopedia Treccani; reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens