Gregorio Fiasconaro

Gregorio Fiasconaro (1915-1994) was a baritone, opera director, film actor and the first director of the University of Cape Town's Opera School.

Biography

Born in Castelbuono, Sicily, and made his debut as a singer in the children's choir in La Bohéme. He studied at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. His career was interrupted when he became a pilot for Italy during World War II, and was shot down over East Africa and taken to South Africa as a prisoner of war. He married Mabel Marie, a South African woman from Pietermaritzburg, whom he had met while interred. They had one son, Marcello Fiasconaro.

After World War II, he became known in South Africa for his performances with orchestras in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg as well as on radio. He settled in Cape Town as a singer and, in February 1949, was appointed part-time singing teacher teacher at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town where he was eventually appointed professor of music and was put in charge of the opera section in 1951. He became the Opera Manager of CAPAB in 1980.

His autobiography, I'd Do It Again, was published by Books of Africa in 1982.

He died in Cape Town in 1994.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As director

1951: La serva padrona, Suor Angelica (both for the South African College of Music)

1952: He directed the production of Erik Chisholm's opera, Dark Sonnet, for the University of Cape Town Opera Company.

1953: 5 operas presented on tour to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe): Gianni Schicchi, La serva padrona, Il segreto di Susanna, The Telephone, The Medium (all University of Cape Town Opera Company).

1960: La Bohème, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Cavalleria Rusticana (all for the EOAN Group)

1969: La bohème for CAPAB Opera/UCT Opera Company

1969: Lucia di Lammermoor for CAPAB Opera

1972: Lucia di Lammermoor and Madama Butterfly (both for CAPAB Opera)

1977: La traviata for CAPAB Opera

1977: Otello for CAPAB Opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites (UCT Opera School)

1978: Albert Herring (UCT Opera School), The Bear and Three's Company (UCT Opera School)

1979: La Boheme (UCT Opera School)

As actor

1953: He played Tadh Beag in Erik Chisholm's opera The Inland Woman at the Little Theatre.

1969: Marcello in La Boheme (UCT Opera Company/CAPAB Opera)

Film

His sole film appearance was as "Mario" in the 1972 Emil Nofal film The Winners (released in the USA as My Way, 1974)

Awards

Among his many awards are a Nederburg-award for Opera in 1979 and a "Commendatore" from the Republic of Italy in 1984.

Sources

Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275608/

http://saoperasingers.homestead.com/Gregorio_Fiasconaro_Bio.html

Alexandra Xenia Sabina Mossolow[1]. 2003. The career of South African soprano Nellie du Toit, born 1929. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Stellenbosch.[2]

Hilde Roos. 2010. 'Opera Production in the Western Cape: Strategies in Search of Indigenisation'. Unpublished PhD thesis. Stellenbosch University.

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