Rolando Panerai

Rolando Panerai (born 17 October 1924) is an Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. He was born in Campi Bisenzio, near Florence, Italy and studied with Frazzi in Florence and Armani and Giulia Tess in Milan. Panerai made his stage debut in 1947 in Naples at the Teatro di San Carlo as the pharaon in Rossini's Mosè in Egitto. Other debuts, both in 1951, were as Simon Boccanegra in Simon Boccanegra in Bergamo and as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at La Scala in Milan. He sang in many rarely performed Verdi operas on radio broadcast for RAI in 1951 (to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Verdi's death), such as Giovanna d'Arco, La battaglia di Legnano, and Aroldo. Later roles included most of the great Verdi baritone roles, particularly the title character in Rigoletto, The Count of Luna in Il trovatore, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, Marquis of Posa in Don Carlos, Amonasro in Aida.

Panerai has more than 150 operas in his repertory, although he is best known for comic roles: Ford in Falstaff (his signature role), Gianni Schicchi, Figaro in Nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and both Guglielmo and Alfonso in Così fan tutte; also, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, both Belcore and Dulcamara in Elisir d'amore, and Malatesta and the title role in Don Pasquale. He was once an expontent of Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini for many years, singing the role in Genova as recently as 2011, at the age of 87. He has sung at the Paris Opera, in the Staatsoper, Frankfurt and at the Glyndebourne Festival.