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*Comment on Facebook*By "G.G." Bolero Film, September 24, 1961
This is the artistic credo of the highest-paid opera singer in the world, but he is accused of having a bad temper.
In New York last winter there was a " grand premiere " at the Metropolitan. An Italian tenor debuted who was still little known in America but about whom great things were said. In Italy, in Europe he was famous; he had sung for several seasons at La Scala in Milan. His name was Franco Corelli.
The success of the performance confirmed every flattering prediction. Connoisseurs compared his voice to that of the illustrious Caruso. Ladies decreed that Corelli was more handsome than Errol Flynn, when Errol was at the height of his fame. In a single evening, Corelli conquered New York.
Among the many theatres where he performs, Franco Corelli prefers the Arena in Verona. Here he is in the photograph on the right, contemplating the immense deserted cavea in broad daylight, looking forward to the moment of going on stage.
A large crowd waited for the singer at the artists' exit. The temperature on that freezing winter night was 10 degrees below zero. But Corelli had to linger to sign autograph after autograph, so that he arrived at the hotel around two in the morning. After the long stop in the freezing cold, he was greeted by the overheated atmosphere of his flat. In fact, the next day, a slight hoarseness muted the tenor's voice. Corelli was alarmed. The same evening he was to return to the stage. Then, towards sunset, as if by a miracle (Saint Januarius is also at home on Broadway) the cold went away, the voice cleared up. Corelli was again triumphant, but as he was leaving the theatre, he whispered to his wife: "This time, though, let's try to go unnoticed...".
![Corelli indulges in one of his few diversions: a game of billiards. "They are the only... cues that are allowed to a singer", he says laughing to his friends. [stecca meaning both billiard cue and false note, crack, voice crack (on a high note) in Italian]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/e2736ef4-53d9-4c3d-b9df-088aaa0e003e/Untitled.png)
Corelli indulges in one of his few diversions: a game of billiards. "They are the only... cues that are allowed to a singer", he says laughing to his friends. [stecca meaning both billiard cue and false note, crack, voice crack (on a high note) in Italian]
The two set off. A taxi was waiting for them in the street. The tenor was about to get into it when admirers came out from everywhere, crowded around the car, stopping the traffic of other cars. There is no escape. Amidst trumpeting horns and swearing drivers, Corelli, sitting in the car, has to resume signing autographs.
The singer happily recounts this episode.
"I couldn't disappoint the public, who after listening to me, wanted to show me their enthusiasm again", he says. On the other hand, I had to save myself for the public who would come to hear me the following nights..."
Corelli's career was in fact caught in the crossfire: on the one hand, the public with its sacrosanct demands, its often tyrannical and exclusive love; on the other, the hundred duties of a famous artist: the voice, the repertoire, the conductors, the critics, the contracts, the tours.
In opera circles, he has been nicknamed "the Callas of tenors" because of certain "star" attitudes, his proud, impetuous and sometimes curmudgeonly character. In reality, temperament aside, if Callas is a great artist who revolutionised bel canto, Corelli is of the same calibre from this point of view. For him, too, the principle applies: 'It is not enough to have a beautiful voice, you must also be a good actor'.
There is only one difference between Callas and Corelli: the former often serves herself first and then the public; the latter serves the public first and then himself.
"When I feel that the public agrees with me, that it is on my side, I am no longer afraid of anything. "
Yet the love he has for his audience often drives him to clash with colleagues and conductors. These two examples are enough.
In 1958, in Rome, during the rehearsal of Don Carlos, he almost got into a duel on stage with the bass Boris Cristoff. Corelli was Don Carlos; Cristoff, Philip II. The two singers had to unsheathe their swords. However, the bass demanded that Corelli retreat a few steps. Corelli, not considering this compatible with his character, did not move. Moral: an incident that was reported in all the newspapers and that risked wrecking the work.
Here he's in his dressing room. Corelli does his own make-up with consummate skill.
The other episode occurred this year during rehearsals for Carmen at the Arena di Verona. The conductor, an American 'imported' from the United States, wanted Corelli to better adapt his singing to the original score. Corelli, on the contrary, maintained that the slight variation he had made, enhancing his vocal means, was beneficial to the performance. The maestro, enraged, laid down his baton and returned to America. Corelli stayed and won.
...In the photo below the singer is with Maria Callas in "Poliuto".
Like all loves, however, that of the singer for the public is not without its storms. On other occasions, Corelli did not hesitate to get into an argument with insolent or impatient spectators. Once he burst onto a stage and grabbed a spectator by the lapels who had addressed him in derision when he appeared on the proscenium to share the applause with his stage partner; another time he lashed out at a gentleman who was smearing his name on a poster.
Yet in his private life, Corelli is a mild-mannered man who never raises his voice for any reason. Born in Ancona, the tenor studied engineering and wanted to become an engineer. He was endowed with an athletic physique and practised many sports. What's more, he possessed a beautiful tenor voice that was not exploited at all. It was a sister and a couple of friends who convinced him to enter a competition for opera singers. Corelli was heard by Ildebrando Pizzetti who was impressed by his vocal means. Later, he won a scholarship and went to study in Florence. He made his debut in Rome; in 1952 in Don Carlos [Giulietta e Romea by Zandonai].
...the tenor is at his home in Milan with his wife Loretta. His wife acts as his secretary and administrator. The two met in Rome in '53 [52] where she was studying [sic!] singing. [In reality both of them were singing at the Rome opera]
His career was rapid, lightning fast. Corelli did not wait in the anteroom, he did not know the melancholy of the small pensions for theatre artists and the long waits in the anterooms of impresarios. Is this good or bad? On the one hand, this has given him a confidence, a "nobility" and a flair that many colleagues envy him; on the other, it has made him secretly dissatisfied. Corelli would like to study and practise all the time. Even during these summer months, when he was able to take his first real holiday in many years, Corelli took advantage of every free moment to go over scores and improve himself. A few days ago he was on the Lido in Venice for the Film Festival, but he rushed to La Fenice every day to do vocalisations and rehearse entire arias. And, in the theatre, during the opera season, his wife, half-hidden in a proscenium box, filmed him with a camera and recorded his singing on magnetic tape. The two then screen the films in private and exchange impressions. In this way Corelli was able to improve his mechanics, diction and vocal emission.
For all these reasons (the rapid success and the continuous search for the best), the singer was so liked by the Americans that they made him a hundred new proposals: films, musical comedies, concert tours, "opera tours". This is why the most "American" of our film producers liked him and kept him under contract, proposing to launch him on the screens as soon as possible.
Corelli smiled at this. He said, thoughtfully: "As long as they offer me a good subject... And provided the public is, of course, on my side... "
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