Bidspirit auction | CHECCO MARCONI - HANDWRITTEN LETTER

CHECCO MARCONI - HANDWRITTEN LETTER - Francesco Marconi (Rome, May 14, 1855 - Rome, February 5, 1916) was an Italian tenor. Marconi was born in Rome in 1855, into a wealthy family, although the historical events of the years of the Unification of Italy changed some professional and economic certainties and his father, one of the main Roman hardware dealers, had financial problems. The young Marconi began working in a carpentry shop as a coffin builder, continuing to do so until he was twenty. During an evening serenade performed to a girl in Trastevere, he attracted the attention of the baritone Ottavio Bartolini who convinced him to approach opera, following his teachings. His debut took place in 1876 in Florence, at the Teatro Pagliano (now the Teatro Verdi) in Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito. Lucrezia Borgia and Rigoletto followed. His repertoire included, among others: Faust, Rigoletto, La Gioconda, I puritani, Otello, L'africana, Un ballo in maschera, Aida, L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti. At twenty-one, Marconi could show off a good timbre, a correct sound and great resistance to wind instruments, and therefore success was immediate and on an international scale, in fact already in 1878 he made his debut abroad with Faust by Charles Gounod at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Even if he was not a student of the baritone Antonio Cotogni, the latter was very influential on the young Marconi, who met him to collaborate with him in the first joint performance, in I puritani; Marconi wrote: «When I arrived at the first rehearsal, and I heard him sing his first bar, O colomba fuggo io mai, I was completely shocked by his terrifying art and said that I did not want to continue singing, what an overwhelming artist! The great and impressive melodies that Bellini had created for this divine opera have become even greater thanks to the incomparable interpretation of Cotogni and I am not ashamed to confess that I learned I puritani and a considerable part of my other repertoire from Toto Cotogni». Marconi's vocal characteristics were vocal power, his phrasing, his colorful accents, his great passion and soul, which made him a purely romantic tenor in terms of vocality, style, repertoire, competing in popularity with the greatest contemporary tenors, compared to whom he could boast great vocal gifts, his voice being very timbred, of exceptional extension, of rare metal and considerable volume. IMPORTANT DOCUMENT FOR THE COLLECTIONS OF ENTHUSIASTS