Zacearía, Nicola (Angelo)
Zacearía, Nicola (Angelo)
Zacearía, Nicola (Angelo), Greek bass; b. Piraeus, March 9, 1923. He received training at the Royal Cons, in Athens. In 1949 he made his operatic debut as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Athens Opera. In 1953 he won the La Scala singing competition in Milan, where he made his first appearance as Sparafucile that same year; from then until 1974 he was a member of the company, singing many leading bass roles. He made his first appearance at the Vienna State Opera in 1956. In 1957 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Don Fernando and at London’s Covent Garden as Oroveso, where he sang again in 1959. In 1976 he appeared as King Marke in Dallas. He sang Colline in Macerata in 1982. His guest engagements also took him to such operatic centers as Cologne, Geneva, Moscow, Berlin, Edinburgh, Brussels, and Monte Carlo. In addition, he also appeared as a concert artist. Among his other roles were Sarastro, the Commendatore, Creon, Silva, Zaccaria, and Bellini’s Rodolfo.
—Nicholas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire