Frank Guarrera

Frank Guarrera (December 3, 1923 – November 23, 2007) was an Italian-American lyric baritone who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera, singing with the company for a total of 680 performances. He performed 35 different roles at the Met, mostly from the Italian and French repertories, from 1948 through 1976.

Audio Excerpt

Guarrera takes us through an aria from Falstaff, an opera by Verdi based on The Merry Wives of Windsor

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More on his life and work.

Interview Excerpt

ON THE GIFTS OF SHAKESPEARE

FRANK GUARRERA:  Well, for me, I don’t know how Shakespeare had all of this knowledge in his head.  How he managed to write about subjects that he never had first-hand knowledge of.  I mean, association.  I mean, all over the world his characters roamed.  And it was with great perfection that he put words into their mouth.  And it’s – it’s almost – it’s almost a holy thing, you know?

You say, “What are you talking about it?”  I’m talking about you have to believe, very strongly, even in something that you’ve never seen, but you must believe it with all your heart; and he knew the right words to write.

And of course, there’s one word – or several words – one of them is “technique”, that we haven’t talked about.  And I think that – that could rhyme, or be associated with, the word “gifted”.  He was certainly the most gifted person, meaning it was a gift to him that he knew what to do, in any situation, and it took a great deal of technique to have battle scenes on the stage and to have jealousy portrayed and love portrayed and — there we go with the make-believe, again.  Can’t get away from it.  It’s a wonderful thing.