Tullio Pane (Naples, June 16th, 1930 - Civitavecchia, October 3rd, 2001), named Panino for his low height, was an excellent Italian singer.
He was born in Naples in 1930, he attended Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in his hometown and won, in 1950, a scholarship raffled off at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where small roles as a tenor were given him, during opera season.
In 1952 he took part and won a competition for new voices organized by Rai, in this way he has joined maestro Giannini's orchestra and then he will have sung accompanied by Giuseppe Anepeta, Luigi Vinci and he'll have taken part to several radio shows performing Neapolitan songs. In 1954 won at Festival di Napoli with the song "Suonno d'amore", executed together with Achille Togliani, an elegant song by maestro Mangieri; the following year he won as the first as the second prize at Festival di Sanremo playing "Buongiorno tristezza" and "Il torrente" (together with Claudio Villa) and again at Festival di Napoli the third prize with "E llampare" ripeated by Gino Latilla.
In 1956 he took part to the radio competition "Le canzoni della fortuna" playing song "Signora fortuna" by Fragna and in 1962 "L'ammore avess'a essere" is the song with which he won at Zurich Festival, written by Totō (Antonio De Curtis), in competition with him also Achille Togliani, Luciano Tajoli, Nilla Pizzi and Ernesto Bonino. The work has gone on with TV shows like Canzonissima and various recitals in Italy but, with the arrival of new styles and rhythms his popularity lessened so he decided to start several tours around the world, from Australia to Japan, from U.S.A. to France and Spain. Since 1970 he has taken plently his opera activity again, singing in the greatest Italian and foreign theatres like La Scala in Milan, the Carnegie Hall of New York, San Carlo Theatre of Naples, the Opera of Rome, with conductors and directors like Oren, Patanč, Bartoletti, Bolognini, Ronconi. Let us mention his partecipation to Gaetano Donizetti's Fausta in 1980 alongside Raina Kabaivanska and Renato Bruson at Opera Theatre of Rome, and Lucia di Lammermoor also by Donizetti, this time with Mariella Devia and the great spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus, directed by Franco Mannino in 1990. Between 1997 and 2001 he has been guest for various episodes of the TV show "Ci vediamo su RAI 1" conducted by Paolo Limiti. In 2001 the label Riverrecords published a CD entitled "70 mi dā tanto", containing 26 pieces recorded live for his 70 years of age and his 50 years of artistic career, with the accompaniment at piano of maestro Roberto Negri.
Among his hits let us mention: Suonno d'ammore (1° prize at Festival di Napoli 1954), Buongiorno Tristezza (1° prize at Festival di Sanremo 1955), Il Torrente (2° prize at Festival di Sanremo 1955), Eternamente tu (1° prize at Zurich Eurofestival 1963), Tu sia musica (3° prize at Festival di Napoli 1955), O sole mio, Torna a surriento, O surdato innamorato, Funiculi'funiculā, Te voglio bene assaie, Marechiare, I te vurria vasā, Non penserō che a te, Bruna Maria del porto, Aieressera, Adduormete, Note d'ammore, Pianura, Torna Maggio, Popolanella, Fili d'oro, Nun me guardā, Speranza, 'E rrose chiagneno, Chiagneno pure ll'onne, Luna 'nnammurata, Turnammoce 'ncuntrā.
