<aside> 🇮🇹 Clicca qui per il testo originale in italiano 🇮🇹
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*Comment on Facebook*Contrary to popular belief and some newspaper reports, the accident did not happen at the rehearsal, and his arm was not broken, nor did he punch his sports car window in anger when someone impudently tried to overtake him (yes, there were also reports saying this). Although, true that indirectly, his cursed cars were the cause of the accident again, and the damage was caused by a collision with glass. Below are some of the newspaper reports that have correctly reported what happened (right down to the gruesome details of the injury).
<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_orange.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_orange.svg" width="40px" /> What happened, in short:
On Dec 1, 1961, while having dinner at a friend's house in Parma, trying to open a door, he knocked the glass out of it, which cut deep into the back of his left hand, affecting tendons and nerves. Giuseppe Negri theatre director's brother, Dr. Ercole Negri, sutured the wound with eight stitches and, to ensure complete rest and immobility for healing, plastered his hand, but Franco was still tormented by fever and pain shooting up to his shoulder for several weeks.
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Arrigo is a bit clumsy, but still a hero.
Tenor Franco Corelli has injured his hand
He hopes to be able to sing on the opening night of La Scala.
Parma, December 1, night.
The tenor Franco Corelli has been the victim of an unusual accident. Passing through our city, the singer had stopped to visit a family of friends. While the singer was opening a door in the family's house, a window was smashed and Corelli's left hand was injured.
Photo source: Corriere della Sera, December 2, 1961 (photo taken earlier)
The singer was immediately rescued by a doctor from Parma, Dr Ercole Negri, a friend of his, who applied a few stitches and judged that he would recover within twelve days.
Statements by the singer upon his return to Milan
Despite his injury, tenor Corelli was able to drive himself to his home in Milan. As soon as he returned, the singer went straight to bed.
He told an editor of the "Ansa" agency, who went to see him, that since he had no rehearsals, he had gone to Modena yesterday to have a look at the engine of his "Ferrari", which he had bought a few days before. On his way back to Milan, the tenor, who was travelling with his wife, wanted to stop for dinner in Parma. During a visit to a friend's house, while opening a large door leading into a living room, he turned the handle with his right hand and leaned his left hand against the glass, causing it to break.
After a temporary bandage, the singer immediately went to see Dr Ercole Negri, brother of the councillor Dr Giuseppe who oversees the Teatro Regio, who stitched up the second metacarpal, which had been severed, and closed a five-centimetre-long wound in the palm of his hand. The operation lasted about half an hour and at the end the surgeon, in order to keep his arm inactive, put it in a plaster cast up to below the elbow. The prognosis is twelve days. Once the anaesthesia had worn off, Corelli now complained of a very strong pain in his arm up to his armpit, for which he was given tranquillizers.
Corelli said that he drove his Ferrari from Parma to Milan at a walking pace, not only because of the consequences of the accident but also because of the thick fog in the area. He added that he hoped that his condition would not affect his participation in the opening of the opera season at the Teatro alla Scala, where he will perform in the opera La battaglia di Legnano. In turn, the theatre's superintendent, Dr Ghiringhelli, told Ansa: "I don't think that tenor Corelli will have any serious difficulties in taking part in the opening night". The tenor Franco Corelli has been entrusted with the part of the Veronese captain. The other performers are Antonietta Stella, Ettore Bastianini and Marco Stefanoni.
Dr Ercole Negri tends to Corelli's injury - thanks to Graziano Corelli for the photo
However, his participation in the inaugural performance is not compromised - The story of the accident
Corriere d'Informazione, December 7-8, 1961: "In the photo on the right: the tenor Franco Corelli in Arrigo's costume as he will appear this evening in " La battaglia di Legnano ". The white circle indicates the singer's hand, which has been bandaged following an accident a few days ago".
Franco Corelli did not participate last night in the rehearsal of "La battaglia di Legnano", the opera by Verdi that will open this year's season at La Scala. In the morning the news was good and suggested that the tenor's injury in Parma, although painful, would not prevent him from attending this rehearsal, which was the first one with lights and costumes. In the afternoon, however, Corelli realised that the consequences of the accident still advised a certain amount of caution.
There was a slight increase in fever, and the singer also realised that any attempt to move his left arm, which was in plaster up to the elbow, caused painful twinges in his hand. A predictable set of things, not worrying. It just seemed a wise decision not to take any risks by participating in the test, which would have been long and would certainly have required a great deal of effort.
The absence of Corelli, who plays the heroic protagonist Arrigo in the opera, initially aroused great apprehension in La Scala circles. But yesterday evening's reservation should be interpreted as a precaution: it is a guarantee that the premiere of the "Battaglia di Legnano" will take place regularly on the evening of Saint Ambrose. Corelli himself confirmed this to us last night in his Milanese home in Via Crivelli, where telegrams, flowers, good wishes and telephone calls from many Italian and foreign cities had been pouring in all day.
"By December 7th the wound will not bother me so much," said the singer, "the doctor thinks that a small plaster cast on my hand will be enough. But I will still sing, even if I have a fever and my arm is still in a cast like it is now. After all, in the opera Arrigo arrives wounded, I will be in character". Corelli appeared to us tired but also sustained by a certain nervous tension, after the whole day spent waiting for "how it was going", a prisoner in the hall where he studies, completely closed by heavy curtains, in the midst of a series of recorders, his piano, piles of papers and records, a striped dressing gown around his very tall and robust figure, a "foulard" with complicated designs to support his arm.
We asked him again how the accident happened. Corelli repeated that he was at a friend's house in Parma; he placed his hand against the glass, which gave way; instinctively, the singer tried to support the upper part of the glass, which was coming down, but in doing so he placed the back of his hand under a long edge that cut deeply into the tissue and also injured a tendon. The blood came out in spurts, abundant, and a doctor, Dr Negri, was called in urgently, who first stopped the haemorrhage, then proceeded to suture the cut, with eight stitches: twenty-five minutes before it was over. The plaster cast was necessary so that the partial cut of the tendon could better reinforce itself. With one hand Corelli then drove slowly to Milan.
From the injured hand, the talk moved on to topics of work. Corelli said he was happy to interpret the " Battaglia di Legnano " also because of its patriotic significance, in the year of the centenary. At La Scala this year, he will appear in Puccini's "Turandot" and in Meyerbeer's eagerly awaited "Huguenots". Before "Gli Ugonotti", however, he will travel to the United States for three months at the Metropolitan.
Photo taken from an unknown magazine clipping from the same period. Thanks to Irina Malinina for the photo! "Franco Corelli at his home in Milan, reviewing the part on the tape recorder, with his left arm in plaster. The tenor injured the back of his hand by breaking the glass of a door at a friend's house in Parma. Eight stitches were needed to suture the wound. Because of this accident, Franco Corelli was forced to miss the last rehearsals.”
V. B.
