Freddie de Tommaso Just World-Premiered a Lost Verismo Opera. It Deserves Your Attention.

In February, tenor Freddie de Tommaso stood on the stage of Milan's Teatro Dal Verme and sang the world premiere recording of Marina, a one-act opera that Umberto Giordano wrote in 1888, entered in a competition, and then effectively lost to history for over a century. The composer who would go on to write Andrea Chénier was twenty years old when he wrote it. De Tommaso, who has been one of the more interesting young tenors working in Italian repertoire, is now the voice attached to this piece's reentry into the world. That is not a small thing.