Ettore Bastianini - Early Training and Career As A Bass

Early Training and Career As A Bass

Born in Siena, Bastianini first began performing at the age of fifteen while apprenticed to a pastry chef, Gaetano Vanni, who discovered Bastianini's voice and encouraged him to join the choir of his hometown's Cathedral. Between 1937-1938 he sang as a bass during Masses and religious functions at the church. In 1939 he began singing lessons under Fathima and Anselmo Ammanati who continued training him as a bass. He sang his first professional concerts in 1940 and 1941 in Asciano and Siena at the Fortezza Medicea and Teatro dei Rozzi. In 1942 he won first prize at the 6th National Singing Contest at the Teatro Comunale Florence but was soon drafted into the Italian Air Force which prevented him from immediately enjoying the scholarship accompanying the prize.

After serving in the Italian Air Force between 1943-1944 toward the end of World War II, Bastianini resumed his career. On January 28, 1945, in a Siena concert, he sang the bass arias "Vecchia zimarra" from Puccini's La bohème and "La Calunnia" from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. That November, he made his operatic debut as Colline in La bohème at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. His only son, Jago, was born in 1945.

In 1946 Bastianini was finally able to enjoy the scholarship he'd won four years earlier and began studying at the Teatro Comunale, Florence. He sang in recitals there alongside other future opera greats like Mirto Picchi, Fedora Barbieri, and Rolando Panerai. That same year he appeared in numerous operas with smaller Italian opera houses such as the Teatro Verdi in Florence. Among the roles he portrayed that year were his first performances of Zio Bonzo in Madama Butterfly, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.

In 1947 Bastianini toured Egypt, singing in Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza, sharing the stage with Gino Bechi and Maria Caniglia and reprising the roles of Don Basilio and Sparafucile. He also sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. He spent the next year singing the bass repertoire in opera houses throughout Italy, including the Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. On April 24, 1948, Bastianini made his La Scala debut as Teiresias in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. In 1949 he toured Egypt again and flew to Caracas, Venezuela to sing in productions of Aida (Ramfis), La bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Rigoletto.

Bastianini gave his first broadcast recital for the Italian Radio on 29 December 1950. Earlier that year he had toured Egypt again and appeared in operas in Italy. He toured Egypt once more, just before returning to Italy for his final bass performance in April 1951 at Turin's Teatro Alfieri as Colline. Believing his voice was better suited to the baritone repertoire and encouraged by his teacher, Luciano Bettarini, Bastianini left the stage for seven months, studying and re-training his instrument.