Bonaldo Giaiotti (25 December 1932 – 12 June 2018) was an Italian operaticbass, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.
Born inUdine, he studied in his native city and later inMilan 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 inCincinnati, as Basilio inIl barbiere di Siviglia, in 1959.
The following year, on 12 October 1960,[1] he made his debut at theMetropolitan Opera in New York, and remained with the company for 25 years, singing some 30 roles in over 300 performances, most often as Raimondo inLucia di Lammermoor, Ramfis inAida, Timur inTurandot. Other roles included Padre Guardiano inLa forza del destino, Phillip II inDon Carlo, Ferrando inIl trovatore,Count Walter inLuisa Miller, Zaccaria inNabucco,Giorgio inI puritani, Commendatore inDon Giovanni, Alvise inLa Gioconda, King Heinrich inLohengrin, He was heard in Donizetti's La Favorita at the Met in 2015 at the age of 81 etc.
Giaiotti also made several guest appearances in other major opera houses, theLyric Opera of Chicago, thePalais Garnier in Paris, theVienna State Opera, theTeatro Real in Madrid, theZurich Opera, theRoyal Opera House in London,Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, etc. From 1963 until 1995, he was a regular guest at theArena di Verona Festival, notably asVerdi'sAttila in 1985. Surprisingly, he did not make his first appearance atLa Scala until 1986, as Count Rodolfo inLa sonnambula.
While best known for performing the Italian repertoire, Giaiotti did sing a number of non-Italian roles, notably the High Priest inKarl Goldmark'sDie Königin von Saba (in 1991 at theTeatro Regio (Turin)), Cléomer inMassenet'sEsclarmonde (January 1993, at theTeatro Massimo), Cardinal Brogni inHalevy'sLa Juive, and the Anabaptist inMeyerbeer'sLe Prophète, and, as above, King Heinrich inRichard Wagner'sLohengrin (in 1976 and 1980, at the Metropolitan Opera).
His evenly produced, beautiful and sonorous voice made him one of the leadingbassi cantanti of his generation.
He died on 12 June 2018 at the age of 85.[2]
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