Silvano Carroli

Silvano Carroli (22 February 1939 – 4 April 2020) was an Italian baritone. Carroli was born in Venice. Orphaned as a result of his father's death at only six years of age, he began to attend the oratory of the Basilica of San Marco, but family needs prevented him from continuing the study of music. After getting engaged to his future wife, he decided to pursue a career as an opera singer.

He studied with the teacher Marcello Del Monaco and perfected later with Mario Del Monaco. Later he was admitted to the training school of the La Fenice Theater in Venice, under the guidance of the masters Mario Labroca, Francesco Siciliani and Floris Ammannati, making his debut in 1963 as Marcello in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème, alongside Mirella Freni and Giacomo Aragall, the opera was directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

Already in 1966 he began to face the most demanding roles in the repertoire. From Verdi he played Ezio in Attila, Jago in Othello, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlo in La Forza del Destino, Monforte in I vespri siciliani, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Macbeth, Nebuchadnezzar in Nabucco, Roger in Jérusalem and Pagano in I Lombardi at the first crusade, Amonasro in Aida.

Also by other composers, he played Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West, Michele in Il tabarro, Scarpia in Tosca, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana, Barnaba in La Gioconda, Tonio in Pagliacci, Gianciotto in Francesca da Rimini, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Duca D 'Alba and the High Priest of Samson et Dalila.

He sang with many illustrious colleagues, including Boris Christoff, Mario Del Monaco, Magda Olivero, Carlo Bergonzi, Cesare Siepi, Raina Kabaivanska, Ghena Dimitrova, Montserrat Caballé, Maria Dragoni, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and was under the guidance of famous directors, such as James Levine, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Peter Maag, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Franco Capuana, Francesco Molinari Pradelli, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Bruno Bartoletti and Claudio Abbado.

in August 2007 at the Arena di Verona he successfully added to the baritone interpretations to that as the bass in the role of Verdi of Zaccaria (there are some live recordings where he sings also in the tenor register).

in 2008 he was a protagonist in two productions of the "Fanciulla del West": in Rome and at the Covent Garden (with Josè Cura and the direction of Antonio Pappano). In 2009 he was Scarpia in Tel Aviv, under Daniel Oren's wand. In the same year he was then Amonasro in Verona.

While continuing his artistic activity, Carroli also dedicated himself for years to teaching and held the chair of singing at the school for tenors of the Del Monaco Foundation. He died in Lucca, aged 81.