Enrico Di Giuseppe was a celebrated American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling concurrent performance contracts with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1970s and 1980s. In the latter part of his career he was particularly active with the New York Grand Opera. Possessing a lyric tenor voice with a bright timbre and easy upper extension, Di Giuseppe excelled in the Italian repertory. He was particularly successful in tackling the bel canto repertoire, notably partnering Beverly Sills in productions of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux, as well as Bellini's I puritani at the NYCO. Di Giuseppe performed in similar repertoire at the Met opposite other notable bel canto interpreters like Dame Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and Renata Scotto.
Early life and career
Di Giuseppe was born in Philadelphia in 1932. His first musical experience was with the clarinet, which he played in school. As a youth, he enjoyed singing with others on street corners and one day a local man heard him singing and asked if he would sing a song at his wedding. Enrico agreed to this. The day of the wedding, Enrico showed up and found the groom. He was escorted on stage to sing with the band. He had prepared the traditional wedding song "Because", but he had never sung with it with accompaniment before. When he came in after the intro, he knew that something was terribly wrong. After the first couple lines, he stopped singing and walked off the stage. The groom met him before he could leave the wedding and told him to just relax and try it again. Young Enrico agreed to give it another try and the second attempt went perfectly and that was the first time he realized he was destined to be a singer. He attended the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Richard Bonelli. After service with the United States Army Field Band, he went on to study at The Juilliard School under Hans Heinz. He made his formal debut in the summer of 1959, as the Chevalier des Grieux in Jules Massenet's Manon, with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini. In 1960 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company as Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. He sang with the PGOC several more times during the 1960s and 1970s, including portraying Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cassio in Otello, Alfredo in La traviata, and the title role in Faust. In 1962 Di Giuseppe made his debut with the San Francisco Opera as Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca with Giulia Barrera in the title role and Chester Ludgin as Scarpia. He returned to that house two years later to sing Rodolfo to Lee Venora's Mimì. Among Di Giuseppe's other early professional opportunities were stints touring with Boris Goldovsky's New England Opera Theater and with the fledgling, and short-lived, Metropolitan Opera National Company. di Giuseppe worked for the MONC on a 1965 production of Rossini's La Cenerentola, with his wife, soprano Lorna Ceniceros. Lorna was playing the role of Clorinda in the production and Enrico was portraying Ramiro.
Working in New York City
Di Giuseppe is one of the fewopera singers to have had lengthy overlapping careers at both the New York City Opera and at the Metropolitan Opera. He made his NYCO debut in 1965 as Michele in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street. He returned in 1967 for what was possibly his greatest success, the difficult, "tenor-altino" role of the Astrologue in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, opposite Norman Treigle and Beverly Sills, conducted by Julius Rudel and directed by Tito Capobianco. He would go on to perform twenty-six roles at City Opera over sixteen years, in operas such as The Barber of Seville, The Magic Flute, Der Rosenkavalier, Cavalleria rusticana, Tosca, Manon, Gianni Schicchi, Madama Butterfly, Faust, Capriccio, La traviata, La bohème, La Cenerentola, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Un ballo in maschera, Roberto Devereux, Don Giovanni, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, I puritani, La fille du régiment, Attila, The Makropulos Case, and Mefistofele. Di Giuseppe's Metropolitan Opera debut took place less than five years after his NYCO debut, in a 1969 concert in Central Park as Alfredo. His first appearance on the actual stage of the Metropolitan Opera House was on January 1, 1970, opposite Martina Arroyo in Madama Butterfly. He was seen there, until 1986, in Cavalleria rusticana, The Barber of Seville, Werther, Rigoletto, La fille du régiment, La bohème, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, La sonnambula, Faust, L'elisir d'amore, L'italiana in Algeri, Der Rosenkavalier, Don Pasquale, Così fan tutte, Le siège de Corinthe, Adriana Lecouvreur, Samson et Dalila, and Rigoletto. After the mid 1980s, Di Giuseppe was no longer appearing with either City Opera or the Met; he made his final Met appearance in 1986. In the following years, he regularly performed with the New York Grand Opera.
In the Paramount film, Foul Play, a scene from The Mikado was seen. The tenor portrayed Nanki-Poo, and the scene was conducted by Rudel.
Later life
Following his retirement, Di Giuseppe taught at Florida State University and The Juilliard School. A resident of Deptford Township, New Jersey, the tenor died of cancer in Voorhees Township, on December 31, 2005. His wife Lorna Ceniceros survived him, along with a son and a brother.
