Tenors

Enzo de Muro Lomanto

Enzo de Muro LomantoEnzo de Muro Lomanto was an artist of the highest musical qualities; he had a very beautiful voice, the colour of which could sometimes remind one of Caruso.”  These are the words of Toti Dal Monte who was at first a colleague and then from August 1928, his wife. He was born in the Puglia region of Italy and at the outset of his career added his mother’s maiden name of ‘Lomanto’  to avoid confusion with the renowned spinto tenor, Bernard de Muro.  He studied singing at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella ( a classmate was the celebrated mezzo Ebe Stignani) while gaining a degree in law at the same time.

 

Enzo de Muro LomantoHe first sang at Catanzaro as Alfredo in La Traviata and in April, 1925, he made a brilliant debut in Rigoletto at the San Carlo Opera.  A few evenings later he repeated his success in Tosca, underlining the fact that not only was he a superb lyric tenor but also an excellent actor.He went from success to success, being offered lucrative contracts at leading opera houses and in March 1928, he appeared at La Scala in ‘La Figlia di Reggimento’ with Toti Dal Monte who would become his wife before the year was out. Enzo and Toti traveled the world singing together with tremendous success but unfortunately the marriage failed and came to an end in 1932.  Enzo deeply resented the widely held and erroneous opinion that he had only been successful because of his wife and his career continued successfully throughout the 1930’s but was scaled down in the early 1940’s and finally came to an end in 1944.  He died at the early age of 50 on the 15th March, 1952, after an Asthma attack.  The recorded legacy of Enzo de Muro Lomanto is large and particularly rich in Neapolitan song in which he was true artist.