Ormai il nostro sito rappresenta una ricca e irrinunciabile fonte di informazioni anche per chi voglia approfondire la figura del tenore Giuseppe Lugo, tanti sono gli articoli finora da noi pubblicati su di lui.
Ce ne siamo resi conto quando su internet abbiamo scoperto un sito internet in lingua inglese che racconta la vita di questo grande artista nostro conterraneo (nacque a Rosolotti di S. Giorgio in Salici nel 1899, nella foto in alto la locandina di un suo film); le numerose illustrazioni che lo corredano sono tratte dalle pubblicazioni del “Baco da seta”, che nella bibliografia in fondo viene citato, e definito (con nostra grande soddisfazione) “a fantastic local newspaper”, un fantastico giornale locale, “for a small part of the province of Verona (fortunately the part where Lugo was born)”.
Questo il pezzo pubblicato sul grande tenore di San Giorgio in Salici.
As a very young man, Lugo fought in the First World War, on the Piave and near Asiago. At 24 years old, he emigrated to Charleroi in Belgium, where he found work first at a sawmill, then at a brick factory.
In his leisure time, he studied singing with a local choir director, Léon Gaudier. When he became homesick, he returned to Italy, and tried to enter the Milan Conservatory, but was already too old to be accepted. So he took private lessons with Raffaele Tenaglia. After about three years, he was almost 30 years old, without a profession and without a dime, so he returned to Charleroi for work, and continued his studies there with maestro Gaudier.
In May 1931, nearly 32 years old, Lugo won a singing competition in Roubaix (France), and on October 6th of the same year, he made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, as Cavaradossi. He would stay at that theater until 1936: the best years of his career. In those years, he also sang as a guest all over France, as well as in Brussels, Amsterdam and Geneva. On June 30th, 1934, he married Suzanne, the daughter of his singing teacher Gaudier.
On May 26th, 1936, he made his debut at Covent Garden in London, as Cavaradossi (his most famous role) with Gina Cigna. In the same role, he conquered La Scala on January 20th, 1937 (with Maria Caniglia), and that same year, he sang at many principal theaters throughout Italy, not least at the Arena di Verona for the first time (again in Tosca, again with Gina Cigna, and with Mario Basiola under the baton of Vittorio Gui). He’d return to the Arena in 1938 for Bohème and in 1939 for Rigoletto (with Margherita Carosio and Carlo Tagliabue), where he scored a particularly great success.
He returned to La Scala for the winter 1937/38 season, in Bohème, Mefistofele, Madama Butterfly and Pêcheurs de perles, and in early 1939 for Bohème (with Mafalda Favero) and Turandot (with Cigna). From 1942, his career petered out. His very last appearance was in Tosca (of course) on November 21st, 1947, in Liège. Apart from the operatic stage, he made five films, the first three of which made him extraordinarily famous, not only in Italy.
He spent the first years of his retirement at his “Villa Vento” in Custoza (just over the hill from where he had been born), establishing a restaurant there in 1960. In 1970, he moved to Milano, where he’d stay until his death.
Ricordiamo che in un giorno di luglio di settantanove anni fa Giuseppe Lugo trionfava a Milano nella rappresentazione di un’opera lirica all’aperto dentro il castello sforzesco. Organizzata dall’E.M.I. (Estate Musicale Italiana), l’8 luglio 1939 fu allestita la “Tosca” di Puccini.
Nella foto dell’Istituto Luce vediamo Lugo, secondo da sinistra, con il costume del personaggio di Mario Cavaradossi, assieme alle autorità milanesi: dietro a lui il federale di Milano Rino Parenti, al suo fianco in divisa bianca il Ministro della cultura popolare Dino Alfieri, al centro (in camicia nera) il maestro Antonino Votto, e sulla destra (in borghese) il podestà di Milano Gian Giacomo Gallarati Scotti.
Nella foto sotto, una copertina della “Domenica del Corriere” uscita in quei giorni ci dà l’idea dell’immensa folla che accorse ad assistere all’opera in cui Lugo emerse come stella di prima grandezza.
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