Opera Chic

A Lifetime Burning In Every Moment: The World Remembers Di Stefano. Kabaivanska, Chailly, Zeffirelli, Simionato Mourn

Riccardo Chailly in Corriere della Sera mourns "the loss of the last legend of opera: Del Monaco, Corelli and Di Stefano have been the icons of bel canto". Franco Zeffirelli points out that "Pippo had already died long ago: a cruel end  for a man as full of life and as funny as he was. A perennial bad boy, always ready to joke.  Just don't believe the gossip about his relationship with Callas, it's a lie  made up by one of his exes, a British singer, Nicola Kirsh, who wanted revenge and told the newspapers... Maria and Pippo were just great friends, two very special characters,  great allies on the stage. In their twilight, they were like two castaways, holding on to each other to make their careers last a little longer".

Raina Kabaivanska in Repubblica remembers "the voice who made the world swoon", "a man adored  by the audience and beloved by women. I want to remember him full of life, of joy, full of the Sicilian sun. We did Rienzi together in 1964, I was very young and was studying all the time. He showed up for rehearsals with his stunning eyes, burning with passion, cracked a couple jokes, yelled a bit, then left the opera house. He didn't really feel like studying Wagner. On opening night, at la Scala, he didn't really know his part, and they had to do deep cuts. He sang glancing at the score hidden around the sets, and I had to sweat all the acuti. But he owned that stage, the audience loved it".

Kabaivanska refuses to compare Di Stefano with other great tenors: "To each his own character, his own color, comparisons are just not done. He sang with ease, he was a natural. You could almost touch the sound of his voice".

Giulietta Simionato in La Stampa: "Everything came easy to him: he had the natural talent of a unique artist: he was all genius and rebellion".

(photos courtesy of www.giuseppedistefano.it)

"My Idol Is Di Stefano"

A clip from a Pavarotti documentary where Big Luciano said, "My idol is Di Stefano" and proceeded to tell a great anecdote about his hearing Di Stefano's voice for the first time, going to his father and saying "His voice is better than Gigli's", and Luciano ends the story explaining that it was the only time his father ever slapped his face.

Pavarotti in 2004

"I Held His Hand In Mine": Monika Curth Talks About Di Stefano's Last Moments

«I held his hand in mine as he died: he simply stopped breathing, without pain»: Giuseppe Di Stefano's widow, Monika Curth, just spoke to DPA agency about il maestro's last moments on this earth.

She also explained how after the savage attack he suffered in late 2004 in Kenya, the maestro never fully recovered and «since then he suffered a series of illnesses, and never fully regain his health».

Update: Di Stefano's funeral will take place this coming Wednesday at 4PM in the church of the little town of Santa Maria Hoé, where the maestro spent his final years.

BREAKING NEWS Giuseppe Di Stefano Dies (1921-2008)

Tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano has died today, after more than three years of serious health problems due to an attack he suffered during a vacation in Kenya  in 2004.

An era ends.

More later on these not unexpected but very sad news.

***update***

We knew that il maestro was very, very, desperately ill since that savage attack in his villa shortly after Christmas 2004, but the pain is still so present: the world loses one of the most beautiful -- yes, simply beautiful -- voices of the twentieth century, loses Di Stefano's charisma, the sheer power of his stage presence and the dramatic impact of his interpretations.

To add that he led a life full of joy but also of sorrow -- the loss of his daughter -- only makes the pain sharper. We wish that a man who gave so much joy to so many people for so many years -- a man of the South happily hungry for life who nevertheless carried his greatness so lightly that he liked to constantly pull pranks backstage, memorably making the fastidious Northerner nobleman Luchino Visconti furious the time when Di Stefano sprayed everybody with water thanks to a silly prank tie -- we wish such a man, who also lived a life of private generosity, had been spared the horror of burying his child, and had been granted a less painful exit from this world.

We have recently lost Luciano Pavarotti, that other giant, and we have recently commemorated the loss, 30 years ago, of Maria Callas. Maestro Di Stefano, whose recordings will survive as long as classical music is still listened to, belongs in the company of those giants, and with them he will always be remembered.