Franco Tagliavini

On August 15th, 2010, Franco Tagliavini died in Novellara. He is not to be confused with the more famous Ferruccio Tagliavini. Franco was born in Novellara (Reggio Emilia) on October 29th, 1934. He studied singing at the Liceo Musicale di Vercelli, with the distinguished soprano Zita Fumagalli-Riva (1893–1994).

He made his debut in 1962 at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan, as Canio in Pagliacci.

In 1962, he made his Scala debut. He appeared at the Rome Opera, the San Carlo in Naples, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Fenice in Venice, the Regio in Turin, the Comunale in Bologna, the Massimo in Palermo and at the Baths of Caracalla. He further sang in Vienna, Brussels, Montecarlo, Lyon, Nice, Budapest, Zürich, at the Bolshoj, Covent Garden, and the Edinburgh Festival.

In Spain, Tagliavini sang in 1963 at the Campoamor in Oviedo (Nabucco and Mefistofele), in 1965 at the Coliseo Albia in Bilbao and again the Campoamor (Traviata and Lohengrin). In 1969, he sang at the Zarzuela in Madrid Gabriele Adorno with Linda Vajna, Giuseppe Taddei and Ruggero Raimondi. In 1975, he returned to Oviedo and Bilbao to sing Arrigo in I vespri siciliani. He also sang at the Liceu.

In the United States, he sang in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Philadelphia. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera on March 27th, 1970 as Pollione, with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne. He sang there in six seasons (from 1970 to 1974) and took part in 37 performances: Norma (5); Cavalleria rusticana (11); Un ballo in maschera (1); Macbeth (7); Der Rosenkavalier (Italian tenor) (2); Tosca (6) and I vespri siciliani (5).

Juan Dzazópulos

Tagliavini died on August 15th, 2010 from an embolism after an operation necessary because of a broken leg. He was buried on August 18th. The whole village followed his coffin from his residence to the church in Novellara. He took up in his home his teacher Zita Fumagalli-Riva, when she became destitute, until her death. He supported the reopening of the small opera house in Novellara that is also one of the oldest in Italy.

He was married to the soprano Eliane Claustre, who was from Marseille. She is completely forgotten. There exists a small Carmen excerpt with her and Tony Poncet: Parle-moi de ma mère
Cast: Lucienne Delvaux (Carmen), Tony Poncet (Don José), Pierre Le Hémonet (Escamillo), Eliane Claustre (Micaëla), Pierre Héral (Dancaïre), Claude Milon (Remendado)
Conductor: Jean Aynaud
Aix-en-Provence, 19 January 1964
Claude Ribou

I wish to thank Juan Dzazópulos for the biographical notes.

I wish to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recordings.