Nicola Rossi-Lemeni; Operatic Basso Earned Fame During ‘50s

Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, one of the best-known operatic bassos of the 1950s, has died in Bloomington, Ind., where he was a professor of music at Indiana University.

Joanne Nesbit, a school spokesman, said Rossi-Lemeni was 70 when he died Tuesday of cancer.

With a repertoire of 90 roles, the Russian-Italian singer was a sought-after performer for two decades, primarily as Boris Godunov and Don Giovanni.

Such later stars as Cesare Siepi and Jerome Hines surpassed his popularity in the United States and he began to appear more and more in Europe, mostly in Italy at La Scala and opposite such divas as Maria Callas.

Boris Godunov is widely believed to have been his greatest individual triumph. Rossi-Lemeni was born in Istanbul, Turkey--then called Constantinople--and sang the role in fluent Russian learned from his mother. He once received 48 curtain calls after a performance as Boris in the Soviet Union.

Verdi’s King Philip, Mozart’s Giovanni, the two Mephistos, Donizetti’s Henry VIII, Rossini’s Moses and Bloch’s Macbeth were among his favorite roles during his 30 years of singing.

One of his significant achievements was to create the role of Thomas Becket in Ildebrando Pizetti’s “L’Assassinio Nella Cattedrale.” The opera, based on T. S. Eliot’s play, “Murder in the Cathedral,” is the only one ever sung at the Vatican. After the performance, Pope John XXIII knighted Rossi-Lemeni in the order of St. Sylvester, an honor shared by only one other singer, Irish tenor John McCormack.

Rossi-Lemeni’s other world premieres were in “View From the Bridge,” “The Adventurer” and “La Reine Morte,” all by Renzo Rossellini.

He gave only 12 performances in a single season (1953-54) at the Metropolitan, and in the early 1950s was seen in Los Angeles with the San Francisco Opera and at the Hollywood Bowl.

Rossi-Lemeni also launched the first season of Chicago’s Lyric Opera in 1954 as Don Giovanni.

He joined Indiana University in 1980 where he taught and staged several operas.

He wrote five volumes of poetry, directed for the operatic stage and was a painter in the modern Impressionist vein.

Survivors include his wife, Virginia Zeani, a Romanian soprano and fellow Indiana University faculty member.