Great Historical Singers (Apollo Granforte)

Apollo Granforte is a sort of forgotten baritone these days.  But he clearly had one of the strongest and most beautiful baritone voices in history.  I was immediately struck by Granforte's voice when I first heard him in college.  The quality is similar to the more famous Titta Ruffo.  Granforte's voice has a very bright and metallic sound with powerful high notes and tremendous cut.  A Verdi baritone at its finest.  I would love to go back in time and hear him in person.       Granforte was born in the town of Legangno in 1886.  He discovered his powerful voice without formal training, and made his debut as a tenor in 1905 as Arturo in "Lucia di Lammermor." This debut was a failure in that Granforte was accused of not having finesse.  After his failed debut as a tenor, he migrated to Argentina where he worked as a cobbler.  A wealthy music lover funded Granforte's education at the Buenos Aires Conservatory, where Granforte studied for nine years.  Following that he debuted as a baritone, and had a very successful career encompassing over 1500 performances.       Granforte came from a long line of famous powerhouse Italian baritones such as Titta Ruffo, Ricardo Stracciari, Cesare Formichi. Giuseppe Danise, Mattia Battistini, and Giuseppe De Luca to name a few.  Such a high level of Italian baritones does not exist today.  Granforte left great recordings of "Tosca", "Il Trovatore", and "Otello" in which he is a force to be reckoned with in all his respective roles.  He was famous in the Verdi repertoire.  He also left a great recording of Wolfram's song of the evening star in Italian which is absolutely beautiful.     Granforte opened his own music school and taught several pupils who became famous.  One of which was Rafaelle Arie, who is on the famous Lucia recording with Maria Callas.  He remained active in music long after his retirement in 1948.   often judging competitions. He died in a suburb of Milan in 1975.