Obituary: Baritone Vasilis Giannoulakos Dies At 85
By Francisco SalazarGreek baritone Vasilis Giannoulakos has died.
The baritone, who won Decca’s 1961 International Song Competition in Vienna went on to become one of Greece’s most prestigious singers of his generation. Having studied at the Athens Conservatory with Kimon Triantafyllou and at the National Conservatory with Marika Kalpopoulou, he went on to perform at the National Opera in many leading roles.
He would also go on to have an international career in theaters throughout Germany including Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Essen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hannover, Nuremberg, Karlsruhe, Wuppertal, Berlin, and Hamburg.
He was also a favorite of the Vienna State Opera in the 1970s and appeared in the U.S. San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Among the roles he dominated throughout his career were Amonasro in “Aida,” Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Scarpia in “Tosca,” Count di Luna in “Il Trovatore,” Dutchman in “The Flying Dutchman,” Amfortas in “Parsifal,” Gerard in “Andrea Chénier,” and Johanan in “Salome.”
The Baritone also appeared at the Greek National Opera well into the 1990s before retiring from the stage.
Here is a clip of the baritone performing his signature Scarpia.
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