Giuseppe Modesti
A typical house singer, the bass Giuseppe Modesti (b.1915) made his début at La Scala in 1940, but the next year was conscripted into the army and not able to resume his career until 1945. Thereafter for the next quarter of a century he remained based there and sang a wide ranging repertory. He sang elsewhere in Italy and on visits to the Netherlands, Spain, France and the United States, where he appeared with the Chicago Opera. In 1954 he travelled to Rio de Janeiro and four years later to Buenos Aires. In 1957 he recorded Creon in Medea with Callas and in 1961 sang it with her at Epidauros.
