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Pavarotti's Forgotten Predecessor: Bruno Prevedi

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Pavarotti's Forgotten Predecessor: Bruno Prevedi Pavarotti’s forgotten predecessor: Bruno Prevedi Jan Neckers 26 September 2004 The line of Decca-tenors seems to run straight from Del Monaco to Bergonzi to Pavarotti. Granted there are some intrusions by Giuseppe Campora, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Franco Corelli but their names are not widely associated with this label. Granted too that Bergonzi never felt himself to be very welcome by Rosengarten, Decca’s big boss who preferred the better-selling Del Monaco and who tried to supplant Bergonzi by Jussi Bj¨orling (who died after one failed recording) and Franco Corelli (who was too unreliable). So after his initial five-years exclusivity-contract lapsed, Bergonzi looked to other labels as well. Not until Luciano Pavarotti arrived did Decca once more have a tenor with Del Monaco-fidelity. That was initially more Pavarotti’s clamping on than Decca’s wish. Indeed the tenor from Modena had to start out with an insulting 45T- record in a time when no classical artist recorded on this format anymore. And the label had no problems in lending him out to EMI to record L’Amico Fritz. One of the reasons behind this policy was that Rosengarten thought the label had more than its fill of Italian tenors in the sixties. Anyway making sure that competition wouldn’t pick up the best ones sometimes was an aim too, and then throwing them in the dustbin was a regular feature. Gino Penno only got an MP but retired before he could complain. Flaviano Labo was signed at the same time as Carlo Bergonzi; he got an LP (in the US) and a reduced version of that recording on MP in Europe. And that was it. And then came along a possible successor to Del Monaco and Bergonzi (still only 40 years of age): Bruno Prevedi and for a short time it looked as he would get to wear the robe of the elder tenors. But then his recording career didn’t take flight and his theatre career slowed down and petered out. Bruno Prevedi was born on the December the 21st 1928 in Revere, in the vicinity of Mantua. His grandparents and his parents were not too well-off farmers but the tenor would always relish fond memories of his youth in the valley of the Po. Like many peasants his father migrated to Milan to look for a better life. Largely unschooled he nevertheless found a job and had his wife and his two sons, Bruno and Giorgio, came over. Prevedi lived the life of all street urchins in a crowded popular quarter. He went to elementary school where he met Iride Brasca, two years younger and slightly better-off. They would never set their eyes elsewhere, though they would marry rather late. 1 After elementary school Prevedi immediately went to work. He never had the oppor- tunity to study one single foreign language. He proved to be very skillful and with the aid of all parts imaginable he succeeded in producing his own bycicles. At night he went to evening courses in all kinds of mechanics. When he was seventeen he found the job for the rest of his life or so he thought: mechanic at Fiat. With the war over and the economy slowly improving, there was a secure future in it. Outside the job, pleasures were simple, mostly going to the movies and sometimes evenings of song as was still much the custom with Italians. They hadn’t the money to go to concerts or the very expensive Scala. Most didn’t even have a radio or a record player ( Gigli-records didn’t sell more than 10000 copies in the whole of Italy) so they made music themselves. Prevedi contributed his part in those singalongs: his favorite song was “Fenesta che lucive”, very adapt for his young baritone voice. He didn’t think one moment of a dangerous musical career. Still he wanted to learn to sing properly and he applied to study at the Scala School for Choristers in evening courses. He duly went and got a proper vocal and musical training. At the end of this two-year run legendary Scala Chorus Master Vittorio Veneziani took him aside and told him that he had promise, that he even could make a living as a soloist. He continued to take singing lessons as a hobby but with his feet firmly on earth. In 1955, already 27 years of age he at last had enough money to marry his sweetheart. Ten months later his only son Rinaldo (himself a father of seven Prevedi’s) was born. He still studied, trying to get some experience. Some of his colleagues replaced him when there were engagements while he on his turn took over on Sundays or Holidays. In August 1958 he would finally get his chance to make a d´ebut in an experimental season at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan. Nobody remembers Giuseppe Bertinazzo (Canio) and Bianca Maria Partesi (Nedda) but the roles of Tonio and Silvio were given to two promising baritones: Bruno Prevedi and Ottavio Garaventa, both destined to make quite a career though not as a baritone. One prescient critic was duly impressed and wrote that Prevedi had the potency of a spinto tenor. Prevedi thought that himself too and in a follow-up concert he sang “O monumento” and “Pari siamo”, but in the unofficial part he tried “Amor ti vieta” and “Ch’ella mi creda”. He then went to a former tenor Wladimiro Badiali and asked him to retrain as a tenor. Six months later he made his successful d´ebut in a Monza-concert and then prepared his first role: Turiddu. That took him six months as he still kept on his regular job. The d´ebut, once more at the Teatro Nuovo in his home city went well. He then decided to take part in a few competitions. In the first one he finished second after Luigi Ottolini; the second he won, together with the promise of other engagements. He soon was Pinkerton in Rome (Teatro Eliseo), Loris in Milan (Teatro Nuovo with Orianna Santunione) and Alfredo in Montichiari. He had given all his holidays, all his free moments to his hobby and he felt that he couldn’t continue in that way. He asked for a leave of absence at Fiat, which was denied. His wife bitterly remembers that such leaves were never denied when the Fiat employee was a promising soccer player or cyclist. Still it was clear that offers were coming his way and on Christmas 1960 he decided to go all the way and he resigned. In those days casting decisions were made only six months in advance in Italy. There 2 were still a lot of stagiones and moreover there are never too many excellent spinto tenors. Prevedi never had to do the rounds of the obscure province theatres; he didn’t have to join one of those travelling groups which tried to live on the land during their tours of Western Europe. He almost immediately got decent engagements and was invited to Switzerland for Macbeth and to Belgium for his Tosca-d´ebut in Lige. Less than one year after his real career started he was already singing in Bologna with Ferrario, Cossotto and Mazzoli in Norma, conducted by Serafin. Success came quickly, maybe even too quickly. During his second year as a pro he did the rounds of the second-best theatres like the San Carlo, the Liceu in Barcelona and already the arena of Verona, be it in the small role of Ismaele. His big-break through came in the first months of 1963. He started out by his La Scala-d´ebut in Pizzetti’s Deborah and Jaele and then went to London for a series of Calaf. During rehearsals over there he carefully husbanded his voice till during the last one he opened up and the voice shook the rafters. Immediately the news spread and the Decca bosses were quick to offer him a recording contract that would result in his first (and last) solo album. With Corelli and Bergonzi going for the big money in the States and elsewhere and Del Monaco convalescing after a car accident and singing coarser by the month, he became the new star tenor of La Scala. He opened the season as Don Carlos at the end of 1964 and during the same season returned as Macduff, Ramerrez and once more Don Carlos. He accompanied the company to Moscow where he sang in Trovatore and Turandot. Apart from that he made d´ebuts in Buenos Aires and in Berlin with Karajan. And he got a lot of publicity in the new Covent Garden production by Luchino Visconti of Trovatore (Leontyne Price bowed out and was replaced by the young Gwyneth Jones). In March 1965 he made his d´ebut as Cavaradossi at the old Met. For a few years his career would resemble that of any first class Italian tenor. A lot of performances at the Met and being new to the ranks pressed into service for the tour. Apart from the Met he would sing at La Scala, the Vienna opera and the big Italian theatres. The only thing lacking would be a real recording career as Decca employed him sparingly in roles other tenor stars wouldn’t or couldn’t do like Ismaele, Macduff and Licinio. In 1968 he sang for the last time at the Met. His wife still tells that he had enough of travelling and wanted to spend more time with his son and family.
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