I am not going to make this a long post. The reason that I put this up is for you to hear Giuseppi Giacomini. Here he is singing “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot. The reason that you may not have heard of him is that he suffers from very bad stage fright.

I will give a little background at the end, but mostly I wanted you to hear a sound that is completely free. By this, I mean no grabbing with the swallowing muscles and no retraction of the tongue. This man’s placement (where he directs the breath and the tone within his body) is amazing. I hope that you enjoy it.

Nessun dorma

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, oh Principessa
Nella tua fredda stanza
Guardi le stelle che tremano
D’amore e di speranza
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me
Il nome mio nessun saprà
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò
Quando la luce splenderà
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà
Il silenzio che ti fa mia
(ll nome suo nessun saprà
E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir)
Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All’alba vincerò!
Vincerò!
Vincerò!

No one shall sleep

No one shall sleep! No one shall sleep!
Even you, oh Princess,
In your cold room,
Watch the stars that tremble
With love and with hope
But my mystery is closed in me
My name shall be known by none
No, no, on your mouth I shall say it
When the light shall shine
And my kiss will dissolve
The silence that makes you mine.
(No one will know his name
And we must, alas, die, die)
Vanish, o night!
Set, stars!
Set, stars!
At dawn, I shall win!

Giuseppe Giacomini

Giuseppe Giacomini (September 7, 1940; Veggiano near Padua, Italy) is an Italian dramatic tenor. An impressive tenor voice thanks to its richness and power, Giacomini, known as “Bepi” among his fans, recently celebrated his 40th anniversary of singing.

Giacomini began his vocal career studying with Elena Ceriati, Marcello del Monaco and Vladimiro Badiali. After some success with song competitions around Italy, he made his professional debut in 1966 in Vercelli, as Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly. In 1969 he performed as Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) and Des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) in Parma and Modena.

His first engagement outside Italy was in 1970 in Berlin, where he portrayed the lead tenor role of Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut. He went on to star in Il tabarro in Lisbon (1971), Tosca in Barcelona (1972) and Vienna (1973), and then at the Staatsoper in München in 1973.

In 1974 made his American debut in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón as Pinkerton and Il tabarro. Giacomini returned to Italy to tremendous acclaim at the top houses – La Scala (Forza del Destino, 1974; La Bohème, 1975), Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Regio in Turin , Opera di Roma.

Giacomini made his North American debut as Ramerrez in La fanciulla del West in Connecticut, 1975, making his Metropolitan Opera debut the year afterwards in La forza del destino. He sang in Paris (Palais Garnier), in May 1976, as Alvaro in Forza del Destino.This performance earned him several more contracts with the house in the big Italian repertory: Macbeth, Don Carlo, Il trovatore, Pagliacci and Tosca in the next few years. It was only after this success that he made his first Covent Garden appearance in 1980 (Fanciulla del West).