Born in
Udine, he studied in his native city and later in
Milan with Alfredo Starno, where he made his debut at the Teatro Nuovo in 1957. After singing with success in various opera houses in Italy, he made his American debut in
Cincinnati, as Basilio in
Il barbiere di Siviglia, in 1959. The following year, on 12 October 1960, he made his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York, and remained with the company for 25 years, singing some 30 roles in over 300 performances, most often as Raimondo in
Lucia di Lammermoor, Ramfis in
Aida, Timur in
Turandot. Other roles included Padre Guardiano in
La forza del destino, Phillip II in
Don Carlo, Ferrando in
Il trovatore, Count Walter in
Luisa Miller, Zaccaria in
Nabucco, Giorgio in
I puritani, Commendatore in
Don Giovanni, Alvise in
La Gioconda, King Heinrich in
Lohengrin, He was also heard in Donizetti's La Favorita at the Met in 2015 at the age of 81. Giaiotti also made several guest appearances in other major opera houses, the
Lyric Opera of Chicago, the
Palais Garnier in Paris, the
Vienna State Opera, the
Teatro Real in Madrid, the
Zurich Opera, the
Royal Opera House in London,
Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, etc. From 1963 until 1995, he was a regular guest at the
Arena di Verona Festival, notably as
Verdi's
Attila in 1985. Surprisingly, he did not make his first appearance at
La Scala until 1986, as Count Rodolfo in
La sonnambula. While best known for performing the Italian repertoire, Giaiotti did sing a number of non-Italian roles, notably the High Priest in
Karl Goldmark's
Die Königin von Saba (in 1991 at the
Teatro Regio (Turin)), Cléomer in
Massenet's
Esclarmonde (January 1993, at the
Teatro Massimo), Cardinal Brogni in
Halevy's
La Juive, and the Anabaptist in
Meyerbeer's
Le Prophète, and, as above, King Heinrich in
Richard Wagner's
Lohengrin (in 1976 and 1980, at the Metropolitan Opera). He died on 12 June 2018 at the age of 85. ==Selected recordings==