Background

He was born on May 18, 1892 in Rome, Italy, the son of Cesare Pinza, a carpenter, and Clelia Bulgarelli. His boyhood and early manhood were spent in Rayenna.

Education

He attended the public schools in Rayenna and the University of Rayenna, where he studied engineering.

On a scholarship, Pinza studied voice with Ruzzi and Vezzani in Bologna.

Career

While a student he supported himself by working as a carpenter's assistant and as a delivery boy for a bakery. When he was eighteen, Pinza left the university to become a professional bicycle rider. The realization that he was not destined for success as a cyclist led him to take up singing as a profession. He had had no vocal training, and his sole participation in the making of music had been as a member of an amateur choral group in Rayenna.

In the fall of 1914, he made his debut with a minor company in Soncino, as Oroveso in Norma. During World War I he served with the artillery in the Italian Alps, rising from private to captain.

After the war Pinza became a member of the Teatro Reale dell'Opera in Rome, where he made his debut as King Mark in Tristan and Isolde (1920). After two years in Rome, and additional experience as guest performer at opera houses in Naples, Rayenna, and Turin, he was engaged by La Scala in Milan, where he had his first significant successes. On December 16, 1922, he appeared in the world premiere of Ildebrando Pizzetti's Debora e Jaele and, on May 1, 1924, in that of Arrigo Boito's Nerone; in both instances the conductor was Arturo Toscanini.

Pinza made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on November 1, 1926, playing Pontifex in Gasparo Spontini's La Vestale. His success was immediate. He combined a voice of great expressiveness and sonority with a sure technique and boasted a majestic stage demeanor. He remained principal bass of the Metropolitan Opera company for the next twenty-two years; during that period he was heard 587 times in New York and 246 times on tour and performed fifty-one roles. His last Metropolitan Opera appearance was on March 5, 1948, in one of his most highly acclaimed parts, that of Don Giovanni. During his Metropolitan Opera career he also distinguished himself in the title role in Boris Godunov, as Ramfis in Aida, Mephistopheles in Faust, Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Escamillo in Carmen, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro.

Pinza also sang at Covent Garden in London, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opéra, the San Francisco Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and in South America. He supplemented his opera career with successful appearances in recitals.

After leaving the Metropolitan Opera, Pinza carved an eminent career in the Broadway theater by playing the role of Émile de Becque in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, which opened on April 7, 1949. As the male star of this monumentally successful musical, Pinza became a matinee idol, a fact recognized by the motion-picture industry when it brought him to Hollywood in May 1950.

His career on the screen was far less successful than that on the stage; both of his films, Strictly Dishonorable (1951) and Mr. Imperium (1951), were failures. He had done much better when called upon to sing an opera aria in the motion picture Carnegie Hall (1947), and he acquitted himself handsomely when singing an operatic segment in the screen biography of the impresario Sol Hurok, Tonight We Sing (1953). In 1953, Pinza toured New England in Ferenc Moln r's The Play's the Thing, in which he had a nonsinging part. After 1953 he was often a guest performer on radio and television. He returned to Broadway in the successful musical Fanny in 1954.

A heart attack in 1956 ended his career. He died a year later, in Stamford, Connecticut.

Achievements

• Ezio Pinza was a world famous bass with a rich sonorous voice. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. He also appeared in several Hollywood films, the most famous - Tonight We Sing, he also starred in the NBC sitcom Bonino. He received a bronze star for distinguished service during World War I.

Works

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  • Ezio Pinza Ezio Pinza V (1892-1957) Opera

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  • Ezio Pinza Bass 1892-1957 Import

    (1.a te l'estremo/il lacerato spirito 2.dalle stanze 3.ebb...)

Personality

Pinza, a tall, handsome man with finely chiseled features and a beguiling smile, exuded charm offstage as well as on.

Interests

• Apart from music, Pinza's interests lay mainly in sports. He enjoyed skiing, bicycling, boating, fishing, and attending boxing matches. He was also an excellent amateur photographer and a collector of Roman poison rings, pipes, and watches.

Connections

He was married twice. His first wife was Augusta Cassinelli. Their daughter, Claudia, became an opera singer also. On September 12, 1947, she appeared in San Francisco as Marguerite in Faust. Pinza sang Mephistopheles. After divorcing Augusta Cassinelli, Pinza married Doris Leak, a member of the Metropolitan Opera ballet corps, on November 28, 1940. They had three children.

Father:

Cesare Pinza

Mother:

Clelia Bulgarelli

Spouse:

Doris Leak

Spouse:

Augusta Cassinelli

Daughter:

Claudia Pinza