Naldi, Giuseppe

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Naldi, Giuseppe

Naldi, Giuseppe, Italian bass; b. Bologna, Feb. 2, 1770; d. Paris, Dec. 14, 1820. After making his debut in Milan in 1789, he made appearances throughout Italy. He sang in Lisbon (1803–06) before making his London debut at the King’s Theatre in Guglielmi’s Le due nozza ed un sol marito (April 15, 1806). He continued to sing in London until 1818, where he was the first to appear as Mozart’s Don Alfonso (1811), Papageno (1811), Figaro (1812), and Leporello (1817), and as Rossini’s Figaro (1818). Naldi was killed in a freak accident in Manuel Garda’s Paris apartment when a steam cooker exploded and the lid struck him in the head. His daughter, Caroline Naldi (1809–76), was a singer who appeared in operas by Rossini and Bellini in Paris (1819–24).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire