The Italian baritone Rolando Panerai has died. He was 95 years old. He was born in Campi Bisenzio in October 1924. He studied in Florence and Milan, and made his stage debut in 1947 in Naples at the Teatro di San Carlo. From 1951 he sang at La Scala in Milan.
Panerai had more than 150 operas in his repertory, although he is best known for comic roles: Ford in Falstaff, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and both Guglielmo and Alfonso in Così fan tutte; also, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, both Belcore and Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, and Malatesta and the title role in Don Pasquale and in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Panerai often partnered with Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, and Giuseppe Taddei, sometimes under Herbert von Karajan which whom he made recordings.
