Licitra, who was not wearing a helmet, was seriously injured to the chest and head when loosing control over his scooter crashing into a wall in the small fishing village of Donnalucata. It is believed the tenor could have suffered a cerebral ischemia prior to the accident.
Licitra was flown to the Garibaldi hospital in Catania where he underwent critical surgery. The tenor has remained in coma untill the announcement of his death this morning.
Of Sicilian-Italian parents, Licitra was born in Bern, Switzerland, on 10 August 1968, but the family returned to Italy when he was 2 years old settling in Milan. As many tenors before him, he was not altogether confident regarding his vocal capabilities and first started working as a graphical artist. From the age of 19 he started receiving singing classes on a regular basis and he enrolled at the Music Academy of Parma and the Corsi Verdiani. After 8 years of studies, initially as a choir vocalist, he left his voice teacher and enrolled at Carlo Bergonzi’s voice academy in Busseto. Bergonzi fixed a few comprimario roles for him so that he could pay for his courses.
The professional debut came at the Teatro Regio of Parma in 1998, in a special performance for Bergonzi’s pupils. He was 30, and interpreted the role of Riccardo in “Un Ballo in Maschera” to a stunned public, but none of the critics showed. Through Bergonzi he managed to get hired by the Arena di Verona as a cover for Ballo, Rigoletto and Aida, but was asked to sing all leading roles when conductor Daniel Oren overheard him singing one day. From hereon, Licitra’s rise to stardom was almost meteoric: In March 1999 he debuted at La Scala under Riccardo Muti in La Forza del Destino as Alvaro, then sang in Tosca and Madama Butterfly at the Arena di Verona in June and July and Tosca at La Scala in March 2000, yet again with Muti. The performance was recorded and released on Sony Classical. In May that same year he debuted in Madrid in La Forza del Destino, and in Verona he was bestowed upon with the “Premio Zenatello” as tenor of the year. He sang in Forza at the Arena in Verona in July, and with the La Scala ensemble on tour to Japan. Milano honoured him with the Honorable Citizenship medal and Sony snatched him for an exclusive recording contract.
The first months of 2001 saw the birth of Licitra’s first recital disc for Sony, featured as the principal soloist for the soundtrack to the motion picture “The Man Who Cried,” directed by Sally Potter. Potter had witnessed Tosca in Verona summer 1999. She was taken with Licitra’s Cavaradossi and when the audience asked for the aria “E lucevan le stelle” to be encored, she decided to use Licitra for the soundtrack.
A polemic performance of Il Trovatore, recorded and issued on CD by Sony, opened the 2000/2001 season at La Scala and the centennial anniversary of Verdi’s death, the Anno Verdi. The opera had not been performed at La Scala in 22 years and conductor Riccardo Muti, who had personally hand-picked Licitra for the role of Manrico, forbade his tenor to sing the traditional, interpolated high C of the 3rd act cabaletta, Di quella pira. There were uproars in the audience, who booed the maestro’s decision. When Licitra got to sing the part again 6 months later in Verona and interpolated two high C’s, the audience burst out in a wild frenzy and he had to encore the aria, interpolating once more the C’s.
Prior to Trovatore in Verona, he had performed in Un Ballo in Maschera at La Scala under Muti, then repeated the success in Roma in December. In November he made his American debut as a guest soloist at the 26th annual Richard Tucker Music Foundation Opera Gala in New York. December he parted for Wien and the Staatsoper to sing in Tosca, then Manrico in Trovatore at the Sao Carlos in Lisboa January 2002 and Alvaro (Forza) in Torino in February.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York followed unexpectedly on 12 May 2002 when he stepped in for the then 66-year old Luciano Pavarotti in Tosca. Pavarotti had cancelled the performance 2 hours before curtain call. Licitra, who was not scheduled to debut at the Metropolitan untill 2004, was flown in by the opera house as a back-up singer and eventually received a 43-second ovation at the conclusion of “Recondita armonia,” and a 46-second ovation at the conclusion of the signature aria “E lucevan le stelle.”
The tenor’s career was in the making.
Licitra was on holidays on Sicily at the time of the accident and getting ready to receive the award Premio Ragusani nel Mondo on 3 September, in Ragusa. The award is given to people from the region for their merits in their field. Licitra’s family originates from the region of Acate around 30 km northwest of Ragusa.
According to the Italian paper Il Messaggero, Licitra’s body will lie in state in the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania.
