Carlo Cossutta

8 May 1932 - 22 Jan 2000

Written by Joern H Anthonisen

Italian tenor Carlo Cossutta was born on May 8 1932 in Santa Croce del Carso, in Trieste in the North of Italy, but emigrated to Argentina where he initially worked as a furniture carpenter. After discovering his vocal capabilities he received tuition from Manfredo Miselli, Mario Melani and Arturo Wolken in Buenos Aires. He debuted professionally in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón in 1958 as Cassio in Verdi's Otello (to Ramón Vinay's Otello), yet he had already sung in 1956 at a small Argentine theatre as Alfredo in La Traviata. His next principal role at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires was as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959, then Tosca in 1962, and La Boheme in 1963, before the eventfull 1964, where he participated in the premiere of the local composer Alberto Ginastera's Don Rodrigo, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Busoni's Turandot and Leoncavallo's last opera, Edipo Re. 1964 was also the year when he made his Covent Garden debut as the duke in Rigoletto in 1964, followed by great successes there in 1965 as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and in 1968 as Don Carlo in Verdi's opera by the same name. From 1965 to 1970 he was successful at the Colon in such diverse roles as Verdi's La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera and Attila, to La Gioconda (Ponchielli), Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi) and Medea (Cherubini). 1970 took him to Chicago where he sang the tenor-part in the Verdi Requiem. An international career was on the rise. A series of important appearances and events followed; he sang at La Scala, in Trieste, he recorded the Verdi Requiem for DGG under Karajan in 1972 and visited the festival of Spoleto and the Arena di Verona 1973-74. 1974 he also recorded Otello under Karl Böhm, before his celebrated interpretation for Decca in 1977 under Solti. He sang at the Viennese state opera (1977 as Pollione in Norma with Montserrat Caballé in the title role), the Grand Opéra of Paris (1975 as Manrico in Il Trovatore, 1979 as Ismaele in Nabucco), at the German opera house in Berlin, at the opera houses of Köln, München, Stuttgart, Hamburg, at the Bolschoi theatre in Moscow and at the national operas of Budapest and Belgrad. 1974 he also appeared as Radames with the ensemble of La Scala at the Bolschoi in Moscow. His North American debuts came successively with appearances in New Orleans and at the operas of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago. His Met debut came in February 1973 as Pollione in Norma. After a long absence from the Teatro Colón he returned to Buenos Aires for his first stage performance of Otello in 1978, 20 years after his debut at the very same opera, following his Masters advice on not to take on heavy roles prematurely. His career extended well into the 90's despite his illness, and his last performances came at the Colón in 1997 where he was Samson and Macduff in 1998. His gloss roles included Samson, the duke in Rigoletto, Turiddu, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Don Carlo, Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra, Cavaradossi in Tosca, and above all, Otello. He recorded the opera under Solti for Decca in 1978 to Margaret Price's Desdemona. He also recorded with von Karajan for Deutsche Grammophon and with a star cast that included Mirella Freni, Christa Ludwig and Nicolai Ghiaurov in Verdi's Requiem.