The tenor Flaviano Labò born in Agazzino, a little village near Borgonovo Val Tidone, on the 1st February 1927 and he tragically died in Melegnano on the 13th February 1991. He retired from the stage two years before with the last play ” Simon Boccanegra“, at the Municipal Theater of Piacenza.
The schools
His artistic career started after his first study at the Musical College Nicolini in Piacenza. Actually in May 1949, after an audition with Antonino Votto at the Scala Theater in Milan he got a scholarship. Thanks to this he could follow the Scuola di perfezionamento (finishing school) of the same theater. Here he pursued his studies with Cina Cigna, carmen melis, Apollo Granforte and the master Ettore Campogalliani, that he followed to completing his training.
Flaviano Labò’s career
Flaviano Labò started his career on the 15th December 1954 at the Municipal Theater of Piacenza with ” Tosca”. He was pushed by the fellow citizen piero Campolonghi, a bariton.
After few years Flaviano made his debut at the Comunal Theater in Florence with “Forza del Destino”. This opera was probably the most requested one all over the world, with almost 150 performances. It even reached the Metropolitan Theater in New York, where it was played on the 25th september 1957, to the side of Zinka Milanov and Leonard Warren.
La Scala
Flaviano Labò made his debut at the Scala Theater in Milan during the season 1960/61 with “Don Carlos”, directed by the master Gabriele Santini with Antonietta Stella, Giulietta Simionato and Ettore Bastianini.
In the same season at the Scala theater, Flaviano Labò, played twenty-three times the same opera” Forza del Destino”.
During his long career he made many collaborations with all the most important conductors and to the side of the most important artists with a wide and well structured repertoire of 31 Operas whose 15 of G.Verdi.
Flaviano Labò had a strong and extensive voice, well recognizable by his tone, foggy but shrill at the same time. The music theorist Walter Ricci declared that Labò had a great voice unparalleled, it was caracterized by its clear diction, its wonderful expression. Flaviano Labò had a confidential nature, he preferred the direct contact with the audience at the theater, than the uninspiring studio recording work.
