Marcello Giordani, tenor of beauty and heft, dies at 56

Tenor Marcello Giordani, renowned for a voice of beauty and heft that made him a star at the world's top opera houses, died Saturday. He was 56.

Giordani had a heart attack following lunch at his home in Monte Tauro, a suburb of Augusta in Sicily, and could not be revived, his vocal coach, Bill Schuman, told The Associated Press.

"I talked to his wife, Wilma,'" Schuman said. "He said he was thirsty, got up from his chair for some water and collapsed. They had a helicopter-ambulance come in, but he was already gone."

In an era when the Three Tenors waned in the 1990s and 2000s, Giordani was sought after in lyric and later spinto roles.

"It's a tragic loss," soprano Renée Fleming, a frequent singing partner, wrote in a text to the AP, recalling him as "a remarkably lovely man."

"He possessed the easiest, most clarion high notes, and was convincing in every role," she said.

Born in Sicily on Jan. 25, 1963, Giordani was the son of a prison guard who retired and then owned a gas station.

"That's mostly where I made my debut, making coffee," he said in an interview with the AP in 2007. "People still remember me when I was 12 or 13, singing or bringing coffee."

He moved to Milan when he was 23. He made his professional debut as the Duke in Verdi's "Rigoletto" at Spoleto, Italy, in 1986, and sang his first performance at Milan's Teatro alla Scala as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme" in 1988.

His American debut followed as Nadir in Bizet's "Les Pecheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers)" at the Portland Opera during the 1988-89 season, and he made his first appearance at the Vienna State Opera in 1992 as the Italian Singer in Strauss' "De Rosenkavalier."

Giordani considered the key to his career his move to New York in 1994, when he began studying with Schuman. Conductor Riccardo...