Tito Gobbi

Tito was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at Padua University before he trained as a singer. He made his operatic debut in 1935 as Count Rudolfo in Vincenzo Bellini's La Sonnambula. In 1942 he made his debut at La Scala in Milan and then appeared at Covent Garden in London in 1951, both times in the role of Belcore in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore.

Rome was to be the base for many of Tito's productions throughout the 1950s and 1960s, for which he created many roles himself. He was noted for his excellent bel canto voice and his talent for verismo (portraying reality in opera). In the 1960s he was involved in stage directing and appeared in 25 films, both in singing and speaking roles.

He retired from the operatic stage in 1979 and published an autobiography Tito Gobbi: My Life (1979) and Tito Gobbi and His World of Italian Opera (1984). His brother-in-law was the Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff.