Giuseppe Di Stefano

Giuseppe di Stefano undertook vocal training during his preparation for the priesthood inside a Jesuit seminary in Milan, receiving instruction from Luigi Montesanto and Mariano Stabile. Conscripted into the Fascist forces at age nineteen, he earned extra money by performing popular songs under the stage name Nino Florio. Rejecting continued service under Mussolini, he fled to neutral Switzerland in 1943. Although confined as a refugee, he sang on Swiss radio broadcasts and gradually attracted a modest audience. Once the war ended he returned to Italy, where he launched his serious operatic career with a debut as Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon at Reggio Emilia on April 20, 1946.

Recognition of his gifts spread rapidly across the country, securing a La Scala debut less than a year later in the same role. A series of contemporaneous recordings of Neapolitan and other light Italian songs also strengthened his profile, and several of these early discs continue to be viewed as benchmarks in that repertory. The Metropolitan Opera soon took notice, and di Stefano made his New York debut in Rigoletto on February 25, 1948.

Opera enthusiasts commonly associate Giuseppe di Stefano with legendary soprano Maria Callas. Their first joint appearance took place in a São Paulo production of La Traviata on September 9, 1951. Thereafter he appeared regularly with her both onstage and on disc, most notably in a 1953 EMI Tosca widely regarded as the finest recorded account of the opera. An evident rapport existed between them; both favored emotionally intense singing warmed by sensual color. Together they committed ten complete operas to disc. Di Stefano also partnered Leontyne Price in a celebrated Tosca conducted by Herbert von Karajan for London/Decca in 1961.

Vocal difficulties surfaced early for di Stefano, as they had for Callas. In the late 1950s he began assuming heavier roles such as Calaf in Turandot, which damaged his inherently light and clear tenor. By the early 1960s he could no longer sustain a true pianissimo and instead resorted to shouting, aspirating, and breaking registers. He nevertheless maintained a busy performance schedule throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. An ill-advised world concert tour with Callas in 1973–1974 exposed the damaged state of both voices to the public and effectively ended their professional careers. Di Stefano later returned occasionally for minor roles, the last documented instance occurring in Rome in 1992. Although these later efforts have diminished his standing in some quarters, he is still recognized as one of the finest tenors to emerge after World War II.

Di Stefano sustained severe injuries during a robbery at his Kenyan villa in 2004 and spent his final three years incapacitated in a Milan hospital. He died there in March 2008 from complications related to those injuries.