Usually childhood dreams meet an impenetrable wall of parental misunderstanding on the way to their realization. Hence, in the story of Ezio Pinza, the opposite happened. His father's firm decision made it possible for the entire world get a great opera singer. Born in Rome in May 1892, Ezio Pinza managed to conquer the world with his voice. He continues to be the first bass in Italy even after his death. Pinza masterly controlled his own voice, impressed the public with his musicality, although he did not know how to read music.

For more than two decades, Ezio Pinza was the star of the Teatro alla Scala. He performed as a soloist in many operas, simultaneously touring with symphony orchestras. His repertoire includes more than 80 works of a very different nature.

The characters by Pinza were not always central, but they always attracted attention. Pinza brilliantly performed the parts of Don Juan and Figaro, Mephistopheles and Godunov. Giving preference to Italian composers and works, the singer did not forget about the classics. Operas by Wagner and Mozart, Mussorgsky, composers of France and Germany - Pinza was very versatile. He turned to everything that was close to his soul.

Tours of the Italian bass covered the entire world. America, England, Czechoslovakia and even Australia - everywhere he was greeted with a standing ovation. The Second World War made its own adjustments; the performances had to be stopped. Pinza did not give up and continued to hone his singing, perfecting the sounding.

His talented performance has remained in the recordings of opera performances, on motion-picture filmstrip, in movies and operettas. In Italy, he continued to be considered the best bass, and the prestigious opera award bears his name. In the opinion of Pinza himself, only opera singers seeking to comprehend their part can be considered artists. He was just such an opera singer, a legend that has gone into immortality.

For the birthday of the great opera singer, we have prepared a musical selection  that features fragments from the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor”  by Gaetano Donizetti performed by Ezio Pinza. The selection is comprised of digitized recordings from musical media stored in the museum Collection  Musical Library.