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Giovanni Chiaia (1893-1965) is a prime example of a good old fashioned tenore robusto. Born in Rutigliano in Italy’s Puglia region, Chiaia made his debut as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana at Naples’ Teatro Mercadante in 1916. Appearances followed at the Nazionale in Rome, the Petruzzelli in Bari and the San Carlo in Naples and by 1920, the young tenor was being heard throughout Italy. Although Chiaia’s career was largely a provincial affair, he was a popular fixture on the stages of Milan, Venice, Bologna, Torino, Pisa, Asti, Palermo, Savona, Brescia, Trieste, Reggio Emilia, Cairo, Alexandria, Madrid, Lisbon, London, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo and Santiago. He also sang with touring companies in the U.S. and Canada in the early 1930s. Chiaia amassed a repertoire of over thirty roles including Manrico in Il Trovatore, Radames in Aïda, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Alfredo in La Traviata, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Cavaradossi in Tosca, des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West, Calaf in Turandot, Canio in Pagliacci, Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, Loris in Fedora, Folco in Isabeau, Osaka in Iris, Pollione in Norma, Enzo in La Gioconda, Faust in Mefistofele, Samson in Samson et Dalila, Don José in Carmen, and the title roles in Ernani, Il Piccolo Marat and Andrea Chénier. His last known operatic performance was, oddly, in the lyric role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro delle Muse in Ancona in February of 1942. Details of Chiaia’s later years are scanty and even the date of his death is uncertain. Giovanni Chiaia left behind a mere handful of recordings. Apart from a couple of acoustic discs, his entire recorded output was made for Columbia in Milan in 1929 and 1930.
