  Lázaro's
early years were the years of an unusually promising
tenor, the Caruso-successor, the incarnation of the Tenor-Torero,
self-secure, with ringing top notes and fearless of extreme
tessitura. Lauri-Volpi claims he could sometimes approach
the audience at the proscenium in the middle of a performance,
whispering to them: "Behold, you are listening to
the number one tenor in the world!" Yet he didn't
succeed in becoming the household name Caruso had before
him, despite the fame and the acknowledgment he enjoyed
in his native Spain and throughout Central and South
America. According to Lauri-Volpi, Lázaro "stopped
his ascent half way for his fixation of imitating Caruso
and surpassing his glory or for giving up the 19th century
repertory and choosing to sing Mascagni's operas."1 |
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Hipólito Lázaro was
born in Barcelona, Spain, on the 13th or 14th of December
1887. He received no formal education in singing as
a young boy, although nourishing a great interest for
singing and a desire to sing. The great musical enthusiasm
in his village also provided the encouragement needed
to keep singing and when in 1905, at the age of 18,
he had the chance to sing in two local performances
of Arrietas' Marina and Vivas' Bohemios, both fairly
demanding vocally, he was convinced into taking it
up seriously and started vocal lessons with maestro
Blanch. He was subsequently sent to the front in the
Spanish-Moroccan war (1909-11), where he played saxophone
in a Soldiers' chapel. Upon his return in 1910,
at the age of 23, he made his professional debut at
the Teatro de Novedades in Barcelona in Donizetti's
La Favorita, followed by Rigoletto, L'Africana, Trovatore,
Carmen and Aida in Valencia and Tosca in Palma de Mallorca.
This yielded no immediate success, however, and some
sources point to Lázaro's
lack of formal vocal education. He had a poor technique,
or so he felt, and he moved to Milano the same year
in order to study and to improve, preparing his repertoire
under the reputable Enrico Cotti.
His Italian debut came late 1910 in Rigoletto
at the Teatro Tosi-Borghi in Ferrara. During the
summer of 1911 he appeared in a series of concerts
held in England as Antonio Manuele, an artistic
name he most likely assumed in order to break into
the world of Italian opera. In England he also
made his first recordings for HMV. He also appeared
that year in Egypt at theaters in Cairo, Alexandria,
Port Said and Brumate.
Lázaro's career was launched, largely due
to the performances of La Boheme at the Teatro
dal Verme in Milano in June 1911, Rigoletto at
the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in December 1911, where
he stepped in for an indisposed Alessandro Bonci,
and Mascagni's Isabeau in Genova's Teatro Carlo
Felice in January 1913, conducted by Mascagni himself.
Lázaro's
appearance in Isabeau created a vast impression
on Mascagni, who in the years to follow held him
to be his favourite tenor, and wanted him for the
part of Ugo in the world premier of his Parisina,
staged on the 15th December 1913 at Milano's La
Scala. He was also called to Livorno for 15 performances
of Isabeau, and once more at the Costanzi of Rome
in 1914 for the composer's Parisina and Iris. As
Mascagni's protegée, Lázaro received clamorous
success in Italy, and critics compared his voice
to the legendary Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854)
for its metallic shine.
Mascagni admired Lázaro for his stamina
and for his fearless undertaking of taxing and
harmful tessitura. His approach to Mascagni's characters
was passionate and temperamental, leaving Lázaro
one of the prime verismo interpreters of his time.
After the first appearances in Mascagni's operas,
Lázaro
assumed a series of verismo operas to his repertoire,
including Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (Buenos
Aires, June 1914), Manon Lescaut (Buenos Aires
July 1915) and Madama Butterfly (New York April
1920), Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (Habana January
1917) and Mascagni's own Iris (Alexandria, February
1912), Parisina (Milano, December 1913), Isabeau
(Genova, March 1913) and Cavalleria Rusticana (Rio
de Janeiro July 1914). He even attempted to sing
Wagner: Rio de Janeiro saw his first Tannhäuser
in August 1914.
In April 1915 he sang in the premiere of Romani's
Fedra at the Costanzi of Rome, the lead which had
been created for Lázaro. It was also the year in
which de debuted in I Puritani in Porto Alegre,
as Lord Talbot, a role that were to become one
of his hallmark roles. It was later to be his largest
success during his years at the Met (1918-20),
and he first sang it on 18 February 1918, just
after having made his debut
with the house as the Duke in Rigoletto. For the
remainder of his stay at the Met he was by and
large overshadowed by Caruso, who had a firm grip
on most of the lyrical-spinto repertory at the
opera in New York.
He was yet again Mascagni's tenor on 2 May 1921,
when the world premiere of Il Piccolo Marat took
place at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Lázaro
sang the leading tenor, Marat, a part that had
been created for him.
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| Notes: |
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| 1 Lauri-Volpi, "Voci
parallele," Bologna 1977, p. 136. |
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| 2 Paolo
Padoan, inlay booklet to Hipólito Lázaro,
Recordings from 1911-1931, Diverdi Classics / Edizioni
del TIMAClub. |
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| "...Lázaro belongs to
that small group of great tenors who in particular events
have been acclaimed as miracles, thanks to a wide-ranging,
timbred, considerably vibrant, extended, bold, resilient
even if slightly guttural voice. That is why Lázaro's
cult has become part of history." Paolo
Padoan.2 |
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| Portrait of Lázaro,
year and location uncertain. Source,
photo: The Zarzuela Page. |
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| A young Lázaro as Ugo in Mascagni's
Parisina, possibly for the world premiere at La Scala,
15 December 1913. Source,
photo: TimaClub, Italy. |
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| Lázaro in Mascagni's Il Piccolo
Marat, a role he created for the Costanzi in Roma,
May 1921. Source,
photo: Fasolt.com. |
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