Edoardo Garbin


Edoardo Garbin was an Italian operatic lirico-spinto tenor. He was married to the soprano Adelina Stehle.
One of the most important Italian tenors of his day, Garbin created, inter alia, tenor roles in Alberto Franchetti's Cristoforo Colombo, Fenton in Verdi's last opera Falstaff, and Milio in Leoncavallo's Zazà; in 1917, in Rome, he appeared in the world premiere of Renzo Bianchi's Gismonda alongside Ida Quaiatti and Domenico Viglione Borghese. His success in the Anglosphere was limited ; but in the Latin sphere he was in constant demand until his retirement in 1918.
He recorded in Milan for G&T in 1902 and 1903, Fonotipia from 1904 to 1909, and laterly Columbia about 1913; his recordings for the two last mentioned companies sold very well, and are easily found. According to Scott his best record of all is the E un riso gentil from Leoncavallo's Zaza. Garbin represents a "half-way-house" between the older bel canto school and the new verist style.
Garbin's style is a curious mix of the frail and explosive.
At his death, in 1943, Edoardo Garbin was the last male solo vocal artist to have created a part and worked with Giuseppe Verdi – some fifty years' previously in the composer's Fastaff of 1893. It was a role he had repeated in 1913 at La Scala at the ''Verdi Centenary Celebrations.''

Roles created