Tenor
Domenico Reina
Domenico Reina
(14 July 1796
[1]
? 29 July 1843)
[2]
was a Swiss
bel canto
tenor
, notable for creating roles in the
operas
of
Vincenzo Bellini
,
Gaetano Donizetti
,
Saverio Mercadante
, and other Italian composers.
He was born in
Lugano
, studied in
Milan
and made his operatic debut in 1820. He joined
John Ebers
's company at the
King's Theatre
,
Haymarket
and in 1823 sang in the first London performances of
Gioachino Rossini
's operas
Ricciardo e Zoraide
,
La donna del lago
and
Matilde di Shabran
.
[2]
Reina returned to Italy and sang in the theatres of Rome, Venice, Turin, Bologna,
Parma
and
Livorno
. At
La Scala
, Milan, he created in 1829 the leading role of Arturo in Bellini's
La straniera
, in 1834 that of Tamas in Donizetti's
Gemma di Vergy
[2]
and in 1835 that of Leicester in his
Maria Stuarda
. At the
Teatro San Carlo
, Naples, he created the role of Decio in Mercadante's
La vestale
in 1840. Other Mercadante operas in which Reina created roles were
Il conte di Essex
(La Scala, 1833),
Uggero il danese
(
Bergamo
, 1834) and
La gioventu di Enrico V
(La Scala, 1834).
[3]
Other composers in whose operas Reina sang at the first performances were:
In other operas by Bellini, he sang Pollione (
Norma
), Elvino (
La sonnambula
), Tebaldo (
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
) and Orombello (
Beatrice di Tenda
). His Donizetti roles included the title role in
Roberto Devereux
, Riccardo Percy (
Anna Bolena
), Alamiro (
Belisario
) and Fernando (
Marino Faliero
). In Rossini operas, he also sang Almaviva in
The Barber of Seville
, the title-roles in
Otello
and
Maometto II
, Antenore in
Zelmira
, Idreno in
Semiramide
, Osiride in
Mose in Egitto
, Amenofi and Elisero in the revision (
Mose e Pharaone
) and Norfolk in
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
. For other composers, he sang Comingio in Pacini's
Adelaide e Comingio
, Appio Diomede in his
L'ultimo giorno di Pompeii
and the title role in his
Furio Camillo
, Medoro in
Stefano Pavesi
's
Ser Marcantonio
and Pisano in Mercadante's
Il bravo
.
[2]
[3]
Domenico Reina died in Milan in 1843.
[1]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
|
|---|
| International
| |
|---|
| National
| |
|---|
| Other
| |
|---|