Mario Del Monaco (1915-1985) was the great Italian dramatic tenor of the last century. The dramatic tenor is a rare specimen. He is distinguished from the spinto tenor by the baritonal timbre of his sound combined with powerful high notes reaching to C5. It is the voice Verdi had in mind when he wrote Otello.
Del Monaco sang at every major opera throughout the world. His Met career lasted from 1950 to 1959. He left the company after a dispute with its manager Rudolph Bing. I have read Bing’s explanation for the separation, but not Del Monaco’s. My suspicion is that Del Monaco left because Bing wouldn’t pay him enough. Del Monaco was able to make many times more per performance than what the Met paid. At the time of his departure the Met said its top salary was $1,000 a performance.
He continued to sing with great effectiveness until 1975 when renal failure secondary to chronic glomerulonephrtis put him on dialysis ending his career. I heard him at the old Met in Norma, Ernani, and Otello (two times) – once with Milanov and the other performance with De Los Angeles as Desdemona. Leonard Warren was Iago both times.
His voice was powerful and cut through the auditorium like a heavy spear. He was a tenorial marvel. He was a very handsome man, but like many tenors he was short. YouTube has a number of videos of Del Monaco in recital and performance. They all show his unique voice and flamboyant performance style to great effect. I’ve assembled a few of them to illustrate his great voice.
The following video is complete performance of Verdi’s Otello given in Tokyo in 1959. The other principals are Gabriella Tucci and Tito Gobbi. Alberto Erede conducts. Otello was his most frequently performed role. He was the definitive Otello of his era. He was buried in his Otello costume.
Finally the final scene of Carmen from 1959 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Del Monaco is joined with the great Russian mezzo Irina Arkhipova. It’s a language stew – Del Monaco sings in Italian and Arkhipova in Russian. Of course, Bizet wrote it in French.
Yes. Perfect voice for Otello. I read that he was so short he wore high heel shoes.
I wonder whether he had been diagnosed and had begun treatment prior to this appearance in April 1975. I had never heard “Vesti la giubba” sung at such an accelerated tempo until I realized that he was saving his breath for the climactic phrase. The same with “Core ‘ngrato.” This is the YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/27z_FKIm_3Y
His nephrologist was a friend of mine. He said that MDM tried to use peritoneal dialysis so he could continue singing, but it proved unworkable and he was on hemodialysis until his death from a heart attack. BTW, the only the only other contemporary tenor he thought well of was Richard Tucker
As Richard Tucker’s biographer, I can attest that he regarded Del Monaco as a model for immersing himself into a role, both vocally and dramatically. Richard and Sara Tucker Saw and heard MDM in most of his roles, and Tucker modeled his own portrayal of Samson, and to some extent Canio, after Del Monaco’s. How ironic that Del Monaco’s last complete performances were in 1975, the year Tucker died from a heart attack while on a concerto tour.