Louis Quilico was born in
Montreal,
Quebec, of an Italian father and a French-Canadian mother. He studied singing as a youth with Frank H. Rowe in his native Montreal while singing as a solo chorister in a church choir. After winning a prize in 1947, at the urging of the pianist and vocal coach Lina Pizzolongo, he continued his studies in Italy, studying at the
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Teresa Pediconi and baritone
Riccardo Stracciari. With the aid of a scholarship he also studied at
Mannes College, New York, with
Martial Singher (voice), Ralph Herbert (staging) and
Emil Cooper (repertoire), and at the
Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where he worked with Singher. Quilico won the
Nos futures étoiles competition on
CBC Radio in 1953. He made his professional debut in 1954 as Rangoni in
Boris Godunov with the Opera Guild of Montréal. He won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air in 1955 and made his New York debut with the
New York City Opera, singing Germont in
La traviata on October 10, 1955. Years later, in 1970, he sang the role of Nottingham in the
Tito Capobianco production of
Roberto Devereux opposite
Beverly Sills,
Plácido Domingo and
Susanne Marsee. On the international scene, Quilico made his debut in 1959 at the
Spoleto Festival in the title role of Donizetti's "Il duca d'Alba." He made his debut at
Covent Garden in London in
La traviata opposite Dame
Joan Sutherland in 1960, and remained a member of that company until 1963. He sang
Rigoletto in his debut at the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, in 1962. In 1963 Quilico made his
Paris Opéra debut as Rodrigue in
Don Carlos. He was a member of the cast for the premiere of the opera
La Mère coupable by
Milhaud, in Geneva in 1966. He also appeared regularly at the
Vienna State Opera and the
Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In Canada, Quilico performed regularly with the
Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, debut as Iago in
Otello in 1960; later roles were
Rigoletto,
Macbeth,
Simon Boccanegra, Germont, Amonasro in
Aïda, Scarpia in
Tosca, Enrico in
Lucia di Lammermoor, etc. He also made several appearances on
CBC notably as Macbeth (opposite
Marisa Galvany) in 1973. Quilico also sang at the
Stratford Festival, the
Vancouver Opera, and the Opéra du Québec. He sang his last
Rigoletto at the Opéra de Montréal in 1991. Throughout the 1970s he performed in various centres in the United States, including San Francisco (
Luisa Miller),
Philadelphia (
I puritani),
New Orleans (
Manon),
Baltimore (
Tosca). He participated in concert version of rare operas with the
American Opera Company with
Eve Queler at
Carnegie Hall, notably
Gemma di Vergy and ''
Parisina d'Este'' opposite
Montserrat Caballé. In 1972 he sang the title role in the
Opera Orchestra of New York's concert performance of
Gioachino Rossini's
William Tell with
Klara Barlow as Mathilde. Quilico reached the
Metropolitan Opera in February 1972 when he replaced at short notice the scheduled Golaud (
Thomas Stewart) in
Pelléas et Mélisande. His official debut there took place on January 1, 1973, as Germont. In 1987, Quilico appeared in
Manon opposite his son
Gino Quilico, also a baritone, a performance notable for being the first of a father and son in the same opera at the Met. During the Met's 1976 season, he debuted the role of the Bishop of Blois in their premiere of Massenet's
Esclarmonde, repeating his earlier commercial recording of the same role from a year earlier. Quilico was also active as a teacher. He taught at the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto, 1970–1987, at the McGill University in Montréal, 1987–1990, at Philadelphia's prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts, 1995–2000, and the Glenn Gould School, Toronto. In 2000 his widow
Christina Petrowska Quilico created the Christina & Louis Awards Fund at the Ontario Arts Council which gives awards to emerging young singers. One of his pupils was bass
John Dodington. With his wife, pianist Christina Petrowska-Quilico, , he embarked on a new phase of his career. The couple toured extensively in duo concerts and collaborated on his biography,
Mr. Rigoletto: In Conversation with Louis Quilico and filmed a teaching video for York University. Quilico also continued his solo operatic career, performing Rigoletto for the last time in Ottawa in September 1994 with Opera Lyra (his 510th performance of the role). Quilico's appearances at the Metropolitan Opera during the 1990s included several of
Pagliacci as well as
Rigoletto, Tosca and
Adriana Lecouvreur. He celebrated his 25th year at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996–97, and retired from that company in 1998. Analekta issued the Compact Disc entitled Mr. Rigoletto: My Life in Music (with pianist Christina Quilico) to commemorate the baritone's 75th birthday, and Captus Press released the 2nd edition of
Mr. Rigoletto: In Conversation with Louis Quilico in 1998. == Personal life ==