Franceschino Back Home

Abstract

Francesco Demuro is a 43-year-old accomplished opera singer from Sardinia. In the present days his career as a tenor singer takes him to famous concert halls all over the world. He took his first steps in the world of singing, however, not as an opera singer, but as a folk singer in the Sardinian tradition of a chiterra song. He debuted as a mini-cantadore (‘little singer’) on the stages of the local festivals and TVs in Sardinia and, ever since, has come to be known amongst the enthusiasts of a chiterra song with the diminutive of Franceschino, ‘little Francesco’.

After having reached the most prominent position in this Sardinian traditional style, Demuro started studying as an opera singer. Later he abandoned his career as a folk singer to pursue opera singing once and for all, while always proudly declaring his origins as a singer of Sardinian traditional music.

In this paper, some aspects mastered by Demuro with regard to the different vocal styles – as a singer of Sardinian music and as an opera singer – will be examined through both a detailed analysis of his vocal style in the two genres over the years and by gathering Demuro’s personal memoirs and accounts of his evolution as a professional singer.