Renato Cellini


Renato Cellini was an Italian opera conductor.

Studies and Early Career

Cellini's father Ezio Cellini was an operatic stage director who worked with Arturo Toscanini; his mother Traversa Usellini was a choreographer. Cellini studied piano and cello from an early age, giving his first cello recital at the age of seven. He played piano for ballet companies, and worked on operatic productions connected to his parents. While studying at the Turin Conservatory, he worked with composers Franco Alfano and Giorgio Federico Ghedini. In his late teens, he founded his own jazz band.
In 1936, he decided to pursue conducting, and worked as an assistant conductor in a number of Italian opera houses, apprenticing with conductors such as Tullio Serafin and Gino Marinuzzi. His first major appointment was at the Teatro Verdi in 1940. This position was short-lived; Cellini served in the Italian army for three years during the war, and was in a German prison camp from 1943 to 1945.
In 1947, he was hired to prepare the casts of the Italian-language operas of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and was unexpectedly asked to conduct The Marriage of Figaro for a Glyndebourne performance at the Edinburgh International Festival. The performance, on September 13, 1947, featured singers including Italo Tajo, Giulietta Simionato, John Brownlee and Eleanor Steber. While coaching at Glyndebourne, he worked with Kathleen Ferrier on her Italian diction for Orfeo ed Euridice.
Later that year, he was hired by the Metropolitan Opera in the United States as an assistant conductor.

Metropolitan Opera

Cellini's first two years with the Met were spent coaching singers and accompanying them on tour. He also taught privately, working with young singers such as Maria Russo.
Cellini's first podium assignment was Verdi's Otello performed on tour in Baltimore on March 21, 1949. Baltimore Sun critic Weldon Wallace was unimpressed, writing:
Cellini's New York debut was in Verdi's Don Carlos, on April 9, 1952, with Jussi Björling, Eleanor Steber and Regina Resnik in the cast. The following year, he led Aida and La forza del destino. In 1954, he conducted La forza again, and a double-bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. Cellini ultimately conducted a total of 11 performances for the Metropolitan Opera: six in the NY house and five on tour.
During this period, he also conducted at the Cincinnati Summer Opera Company and the Opera National de Mexico, where he was principal conductor. He also continued to appear as a pianist, accompanying singers such as Italo Tajo, Brian Sullivan, and Leonard Warren.
His 1950 recording of Verdi's Rigoletto, with Jan Peerce, Warren, Italo Tajo, Erna Berger, and Nan Merriman, was the first American recording of a complete opera by RCA Victor.

The New Orleans Opera Era (1954-1964)

In 1954, Cellini was appointed General Director and Conductor of the New Orleans Opera Association, where he debuted with Puccini's La bohème. While there, he founded the Experimental Opera Theatre of America in association with the New Orleans Opera. It was "designed to give young singers an opportunity to be heard in opera." These young singers included Harry Theyard, Mignon Dunn, Norman Treigle, John Reardon, Audrey Schuh, André Turp, Chester Ludgin, John Macurdy, Stanley Kolk, Ara Berberian, Enrico di Giuseppe, Ticho Parly and Benjamin Rayson.
While in New Orleans, Cellini conducted performances of operas by various composers:
Bellini: Norma
Bizet: Carmen
Delibes: Lakmé
Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore ; Lucia di Lammermoor
Floyd: Susannah
Giordano: Andrea Chénier
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
Gounod: Faust
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
Massenet: Werther, Manon
Menotti: Amelia al ballo
Mozart: Don Giovanni ; Le nozze di Figaro
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Ponchielli: La Gioconda
Puccini: La bohème; Tosca ; Turandot
Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia ; La cenerentola
R. Strauss: Elektra; Der Rosenkavalier
Verdi: Otello ; Falstaff ; Il trovatore; Un ballo in maschera ; Rigoletto ; La forza del destino ; La traviata
Wagner: Tannhäuser
During his period with the New Orleans Opera, Cellini continued to conduct elsewhere. In 1960, Cellini conducted in Venezuela at the Caracas Opera Festival, leading performances of Tosca, Rigoletto, La bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor. In the same year, he conducted at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as part of their summer season.
Cellini's high standards may have caused him some difficulty with finding other conducting jobs within the United States. In 1959, he was slated to conduct Verdi's Un ballo in maschera for the Tulsa Opera; the orchestra was made up of members of the Tulsa Philharmonic. After one rehearsal, Cellini announced that he could not conduct the performances due to the playing level of the orchestra and asked to be released from his contract. He was replaced by Carlo Moresco, a seasoned conductor who was flown in from Cincinnati for the remaining rehearsals and performances. The orchestra representative said "He knew the whole score and we had never seen it...yet Cellini expected us to play it letter perfect the first time. We're glad he's gone, it's the worst deal we've ever had."
In 1964, in failing health, Cellini conducted for the last time, giving two performances of Aïda featuring Lucille Udovick, Sandor Konya, Oralia Dominguez, Cesare Bardelli and Norman Treigle. He died on March 25, 1967, in New Orleans at the age of 54, and is buried in Metairie Cemetery. In 2004 his widow, Giuseppina "Pinuccia," moved from New Orleans to Tennessee; she died in 2015.

Studio discography (complete operas)

  • Verdi: Rigoletto RCA Victor 1950
  • Verdi: Il trovatore RCA Victor 1952
  • Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana RCA Victor 1953
  • Leoncavallo: Pagliacci RCA Victor 1953

    Studio discography (operatic excerpts and instrumental)

  • Puccini: La bohème - "Highlights" RCA Victor 1951
  • Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Mad Scene and Tomb Scene RCA Victor 1953
  • Bellini & Donizetti: "Presenting Roberta Peters" - Excerpts from La sonnambula, I Puritani, Linda di Chamounix, and Lucia di Lammermoor RCA Victor, ca. 1954
  • Verdi: La forza del Destino - "Highlights" RCA Victor 1955
  • "Opera Strings" Time Records, 1962

    "Live" discography

  • Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor Grand Tier
  • Massenet: Manon Immortal Performances
  • Donizetti: La favorita Vocal Archives
  • Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia Istituto Discografico Italiano
  • Massenet: Werther Immortal Performances
  • Massenet: Werther Bongiovanni
  • Verdi: Falstaff VAI
  • Verdi: La traviata: excerpts VAI
  • Puccini: Turandot YouTube
  • Puccini: La bohème VAI
  • Puccini: Madama Butterfly VAI
  • Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila VAI
  • Verdi: Un ballo in maschera GDS
  • Ponchielli: La Gioconda VAI
  • Verdi: La forza del destino: excerpts VAI
  • Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana VAI