The tenor Giacinto Prandelli was born in 1914 in the town of Lumezzane, near Brescia. He sang as a boy in church choirs and studied with Grandini in Brescia and Fornarini in Rome. He made his début in 1938 in a Verdi concert at Bussetto, and followed this with appearances at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in 1940 and 1942, when he sang Rodolfo in La bohème. The following year he was alternating with Gigli in performances at the Rome Opera. By 1944 he was active throughout Italy and sang with Toti dal Monte in Genoa. He took part in the concert to mark the reopening of La Scala, Milan, under Toscanini in 1946, and between 1949 and 1961 appeared every year at the Rome Opera. During the 1950s he also sang frequently abroad, appearing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1951-53, 1954-55) and with the San Francisco Opera Company (1954) and at the Colón in Buenos Aires (1960). In 1956 he sang in the Verdi Requiem as part of the season of opera given at the Stoll Theatre, London. A tall imposing figure on stage with red hair and a repertoire of more than fifty rôles, he also recorded extensively, for instance with the soprano Renata Tebaldi in another opera by Puccini, La bohème (Naxos 8.110252-53).