Sergio Franchi 赛吉奥·法兰奇

赛吉奥·法兰奇（Sergio Franchi）是意大利著名的男高音歌唱家，他那灿烂辉煌的嗓音演绎的意大利浪漫情歌令无数听众为之倾倒。他有着迷人的面庞和丰富的感情，在很小的时候便显露出演出的天赋。1952年，赛吉奥·法兰奇（Sergio Franchi）举家迁往南非，他利用所有的业余时间练习声乐技巧，仅仅两年时间，便开始担任众多小型歌剧的男高音主唱，为今后成为意大利著名男高音歌唱家奠定了良好的基础。

摘自：http://www.verycd.com/topics/2848862/

Sergio Franchi(April 6, 1926 – May 1, 1990), bornSergio Franci Galli, was an Italian-Americantenorand actor who enjoyed success in the United States and internationally after gaining notice in Britain in the early 1960s. In 1962,RCA Victorsigned him to a seven-year contract and in October of that year Franchi appeared onThe Ed Sullivan Showand performed atCarnegie Hall.Sol Hurokmanaged Franchi's initial American concert tour.

Franchi became a headliner in Las Vegas, and starred in concerts and cabarets on several continents. His earliest ambitions and studies had been directed toward an operatic career, but he instead found his niche in popular and romantic music. Franchi performed musical comedies on stage, appeared on numerous television variety shows, and starred in a major motion picture. He became an American citizen in 1972. After gaining success, Franchi was a benefactor and philanthropist, donating his time and talent to many causes. For his longtime support of Boys' and Girls' Towns of Italy, he was posthumously awarded the title of cavaliere in the Order of Merit (Stella al merito del lavoro) by the Italian Government.

Franchi married Yvonne Lindsey, a South African ballerina of English extraction, on February 14, 1953. They had two children: a daughter, Greta Teresa; and a son, Roberto Danilo. They divorced on December 31, 1981 in Clark County, Nevada. Franchi married his second wife, Eva (née Simone), in New York City on June 14, 1982. Eva had emigrated with her family to America from Budapest following the 1956 Hungarian revolt. It was a second marriage for both.

Franchi and his sister Dana purchased the 240-acre Farmholme property in Stonington, Connecticut in 1979. He intended it a refuge for his retirement years. The property included several residences, and Sergio was instrumental in making it a family compound. By 1982, Franchi had relocated his father, stepmother, and sister Mirella and her children to his estate. The dates of his mother's, father's, and stepmother's deaths are unknown. Mirella died three months after Sergio.

Unfortunately, the planned return to China never occurred. His last of more than 130 television appearances was on Live! with Regis & Kathie Lee on July 4, 1989 [see Filmography]; and Sergio Franchi's last concert was at the Warwick Musical Theater on Saturday, July 29, 1989. On August 3, 1989, while rehearsing for a South Shore Music Circus concert the next day (with Pat Cooper), Sergio Franchi collapsed, was hospitalized, and the rest of his summer concerts were cancelled.Tests revealed a brain tumor and, even after radiation therapy, this insidious disease finally won. Sergio Franchi died less than one month after his 64th birthday.

Very early in his American career, Sergio Franchi possessed the star power to be in demand as a draw for major charity and benefit shows. (His 1962 debut concerts in Boston were organized to benefit The Home For Italian Children in Jamaica Plain.) During his dual-billing cabaret show with Barbra Streisand at the Eden Roc Hotel, they were both recruited for the American Cancer Society Benefit (MC, Bob Hope) at the Paramount Theater in Palm Beach, Florida on March 17, 1963. Along with other stars, they performed before a capacity audience at what was called "the highlight of the [social] season."

In 1965, Franchi (with Itzhak Perlman, Richard Tucker and Vivienne della Chiesa) performed at Madison Square Garden—raising $150,000 for the annual "Music Under the Stars" benefiting the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation. Later that year Sergio Franchi joined MC Jack Benny and other stars, John Browning (concert pianist), Yoel Sharr (Israeli comedian), and Phyllis Curtin (singer) for a United Nations Delegates Concert on September 10.

In 1967, New York City's WNDT held their annual fundraising (more than $125,000 anticipated) show, "13 Stars for Channel 13". Franchi joined Itzhak Perlman, Shirley Verrett and Buffy Sainte-Marie in the event hosted by Tony Randall. Some notable benefits at which Franchi performed during the 1970s include Milwaukee's "Fight for Sight" benefit hosted by Bob Hope at Philharmonic Hall (1971), and a star-filled Easter Seals telethon from Las Vegas at the enormous Sahara Hotel convention hall in 1972 (Raised a million dollars: Franchi performed and made a personal donation) On June 3, 1984, Franchi was a featured performer at the "7th Annual Lions Sight & Hearing Telethon" on New Orleans' WGNO-TV.

Perhaps Franchi's largest fund-raising benefit of all (a political event), in 1982 he single-handedly raised over 600,000 during a three-day concert tour of Massachusetts on behalf of the re-election campaign of Governor King. Again the Franchi-fete was referred to as "the social event of the season." In later life, Franchi donated prints of some of his watercolors for charitable sales. When (in 1988) asked about his up-coming performance at Ninigret Park to benefit the Rhode Island chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Franchi stated: "When you've been as fortunate as I have, you have to do something for other people." Franchi cancelled a paid performance to assist the charity, and the show was expected to net over 100,000 for the MDA.

Though extremely proud to have become an American citizen on October 13, 1972, Franchi was a strong supporter of his Italian heritage. He became active very early with the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), and regularly performed in benefit of the Boys' Towns of Italy and the Girls' Towns of Italy. He was recruited (while visiting back in Italy) to perform possibly his first Boys' Towns Benefit Concert at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on May 4, 1963. Other highlights of Franchi's support for these children's organizations include a 1967 sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall.When Sergio Franchi performed for a benefit at the Civic Auditorium in Chicago, the Italian-American organizing committee arranged for Mayor Richard J. Daley and Governor Richard B. Ogilvie to proclaim May 13, 1969 as Boys Towns of Italy Day.

As part of the 1970 celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Boys' Towns of Italy, Franchi performed in benefits at New York's Philharmonic Hall, and at New Orleans' Municipal Auditorium. Sergio Franchi again performed in New Orleans for a Boys' Towns Benefit with Dana Valery in 1974. In 1975 he drew a full house of 2,300 in Milwaukee at the Performing Arts Center to benefit Boys' Towns of Italy. In Pittsburgh, Franchi performed benefits in 1975 and 1977 at Heinz Hall in support of Boys' Towns. More Benefit performances in New Orleans for the 30th Anniversary Benefit (1975) at the Theater for the Performing Arts; and for a Boys' Towns Benefit Gala on November 4, 1977. Franchi performed in New York at the Waldorf Hotel on March 17, 1980 on the occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the founding of Boys' Towns of Italy. But many of these children's benefits throughout his career were in local concert halls. Larry King...(who profiled Sergio Franchi on TV) likes to tell a funny story about how he was recruited by a local organizer to MC one of these Franchi Boys' Towns benefits.

As a result of the many charitable benefits performed by him in New Orleans, The Greater New Orleans Cultural Society honored Sergio Franchi with a special banquet (held March 12, 1982) and presented him the 16th Annual Italian American of the Year Award. Franchi also received the Il Lecone di San Marco Award in the Performing Arts (1984) from The Italian Heritage and Culture Committee of the Bronx and Westchester in New York. In recognition of his support for them, the Boys' Towns of Italy presented Sergio Franchi with their prestigious Michelangelo Award, and in 2001 he was posthumously awarded the title of cavaliere in the Order of Merit (Stella al merito del lavoro) by the Italian Government.

From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio Franchi