'', 1956 's
Aida, Naples,
San Carlo Theatre, 1955–1956 season.
Early life and education: 1921–1950 Corelli was born Dario Franco Corelli in
Ancona into a family some say had little or no musical background. While his parents were not particularly musical, his paternal grandfather Augusto had actually quit working at 35 to establish a successful career as an operatic tenor. His older brother Aldo subsequently quit school to become an operatic baritone, and two of his uncles sang in the
Teatro delle Muse chorus in Ancona. His father was a shipbuilder for the
Italian Navy and the family lived beside the
Adriatic Sea. Corelli studied with Melocchi himself only "sometimes". The same year he appeared in operas with smaller opera houses throughout Italy and on the Italian radio. In 1953 he joined the Rome Opera's roster of principal tenors where he spent much of his time performing through 1958. While singing at the Met, Corelli continued to be a presence on the international stage. In 1961 he made his debut with the
Deutsche Oper Berlin. He returned to La Scala in 1962, for a revival of
Meyerbeer's
Les Huguenots, opposite
Joan Sutherland, and that same year appeared as Manrico in a lauded production of
Il trovatore at the
Salzburg Festival under
Herbert von Karajan and opposite Leontyne Price,
Giulietta Simionato, and
Ettore Bastianini. He made his debut at the
Paris Opéra in 1964 opposite Callas in Tosca and Norma. He also earned high acclaim while collaborating with the Italian-American conductor
Alfredo Antonini in several gala concerts in New York during the mid-1960s. In the early 1970s, Corelli's voice began to show some signs of wear after years of hard use in a demanding repertory. As a result, the resultant nerves surrounding performances became increasingly difficult to handle for the tenor. He made his last opera appearance as Rodolfo in 1976 in
Torre del Lago at the age of 55. He was briefly coaxed out of retirement for concerts in 1980 and 1981. However, while the public was enthralled with the tenor, music critics were divided, with some complaining about what they perceived as self-indulgence of phrasing and expression. During the 1960s the anti-Corelli sentiment was epitomized by
Alan Rich of
The New York Herald Tribune in a 1966 article which, while acknowledged the vibrancy and white heat of his singing, considered Corelli a throwback. Rich said that Corelli is "not employed by an opera, but employs it to serve purposes it was not meant to serve." Also, many critics did not look favourably on his performances in French opera, owing to the tenor's exotic French diction and style. Nevertheless, many of Corelli's most celebrated roles have been in French: Don Jose in Bizet's
Carmen, which he is known to have sung over 100 times; Romeo in Gounod's
Romeo et Juliette; and the title role in Massenet's
Werther. Corelli also had his admirers among several highly respected and notable critics, including
Harold C. Schonberg of
The New York Times, who once defended the expressive liberties taken by Corelli saying that his performance possessed "its own kind of logic". ==Repertoire==