Giovanni Polese
Encyclopedia
Giovanni Polese was an Italian opera
tic baritone
who had an active international singing career from 1894-1928. He achieved the height of his success in the United States in the years 1908-1916 in the cities of Boston, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, and again from 1926-1928 in Chicago. While he sang a broad repertoire from the French, German, and Italian repertoires, he was most celebrated for his performances in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi
. His voice is preserved on more than 20 recordings made by Edison Records
.
's La Gioconda
. He was also heard that year as Don Carlo in Ernani
in Viterbo; as Enrico in Gaetano Donizetti
's Lucia di Lammermoor
and Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo
's Pagliacci
at the Teatro Andreani in Mantova; and in a small role in Alberto Franchetti
's Cristoforo Colombo
at the Teatro Regio in Turin. In 1895 he returned to Turin to sing Enrico to the Lucia of Regina Pinkert, and perform Lescaut in Giacomo Puccini
's Manon Lescaut
. He returned to Turin several more times during his career, notably creating the role of Count Narval in Arturo Buzzi Peccia's La forza d'amore in 1897.
Over the next thirteen years, Polese performed leading opera roles all over Europe. He performed in operas in Athens, Bari, Bucharest, Cadiz, Cagliari, Cremona, Florence, Forlì, Genoa, Lemberg, Lonigo, Lisbon, Macerata, Madrid, Modena, Novara, Odessa, Palermo, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Rome, Seville, Trieste, Udine, and Vienna among other cities. Outside of Europe, he made appearances in Argentina (1901), Chile (1898), Egypt (1904-1906), and Mexico (1906). Some of the roles he performed during these years were Albert in Werther
, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana
, Alphonse in La favorite
, Amonasro in Aida
, Antonio in Linda di Chamounix
, Athanaël in Thaïs
, Caoudal in Sapho, Conte di Luna in Il trovatore
, De Siriex in Fedora, Don Carlo in La forza del destino
, Dr Malatesta in Don Pasquale
, Escamillo in Carmen
, Figaro in The Barber of Seville
, Friedrich of Telramund in Lohengrin
, Ford in Falstaff
, Gerard in Andrea Chenier
, Germont in La traviata
, Guglielmo in Le Villi
, the High Priest of Dagon in Samson and Delilah
, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde
, Kyoto in Iris
, Lescaut in Jules Massenet
's Manon
, Marcello in La bohème
, Nevers in Les Huguenots
, Renato in Un ballo in maschera
, Riccardo Forth in I puritani
, Scarpia in Tosca
, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly
, Silvio in Pagliacci
, Valentin in Faust
, Wolfram in Tannhäuser
, and the title roles in Guillaume Tell
and Rigoletto
.
's Manhattan Opera Company
in New York City and their sister company in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Opera Company
. During that time he was heard at the Manhattan Opera House in New York as Alfio, Amonasro, Enrico, Figaro, Marcello, Nevers, Riccardo, Rigoletto, and Scarpia. He also performed those role at the Philadelphia Opera House
, and was also heard in Philadelphia as the Count di Luna, Germont, Iago in Otello
, Tonio, and Valentine.
After both of Hammerstein's opera companies dissolved in 1910, Polese joined the roster of artists at the Boston Opera Company
where he remained committed through 1913. At the Boston Opera House
he performed the roles of Alfio, Amonasro, Count di Luna, Enrico, Figaro, Germont, Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West
, Marcello, Rafaele in I gioielli della Madonna
, Riccardo, Scarpia, Sharpless, and Tonio. In the Fall of 1913 he left the Boston Opera to join the Chicago Grand Opera Company
(CGOC) where he made his debut as Marcello. With the company he notably performed the role of Don Fulgenzio in the world premiere of Attilio Parelli
's I dispettosi amanti (1912), and portrayed Egisto in the United States premiere of Vittorio Gnecchi's Cassandra (1914). He also performed the roles of Amonasro, Count di Luna, Enrico, Germont, and Rafaele for the company. He also made guest appearances with the Baltimore Opera Company
(1912, 1914), and appeared in operas in Springfield (1911), Portland (1911), New Haven (1912) and Minneapolis (1914).
After the CGOC went bankrupt in 1915, Polese returned briefly to Europe to perform in operas in Carrara, Verona, and at the Teatro Carlo Felice
in Genoa. He returned to Chicago in 1916 to join the newly formed Chicago Opera Association
. He performed one season with company, portraying the roles of Alfio, Enrico, Ford, Germont, and Sharpless. With the outbreak of World War I
he returned to Italy, and was not seen again on the stage until 1918 when he appeared in operas in Como, Ferrara, and New York. He then retired from the stage and begam teaching singing in New York City and later in Boston. He came out of retirement in 1926 to join the roster of artists at the Chicago Civic Opera
. He sang three seasons with that company, performing the roles of Abimélech and the High Priest of Dagon in Samson and Delilah, Count di Luna, Ford, and Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier
. His final opera performance was as the High Priest in Chicago in January 1928. He thereafter taught singing in Boston up into the last year of his life. He died in 1952 in Induno Olona, Italy.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
who had an active international singing career from 1894-1928. He achieved the height of his success in the United States in the years 1908-1916 in the cities of Boston, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, and again from 1926-1928 in Chicago. While he sang a broad repertoire from the French, German, and Italian repertoires, he was most celebrated for his performances in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. His voice is preserved on more than 20 recordings made by Edison Records
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
.
Early life and career
Born in Venice, Polese studied singing in his native city and made his professional singing debut performing there in a concert in 1892. He made his opera debut in 1894 at the Teatro Unione in Viterbo as Barnaba in Amilcare PonchielliAmilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
. He was also heard that year as Don Carlo in Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
in Viterbo; as Enrico in Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
and Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
at the Teatro Andreani in Mantova; and in a small role in Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti
Alberto Franchetti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin, a Jewish nobleman of independent means. He studied first in Venice, then in Dresden under Felix Draeseke, and finally at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger. His first major success...
's Cristoforo Colombo
Cristoforo Colombo (opera)
Cristoforo Colombo is an opera in four acts and an epilogue by Alberto Franchetti to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica...
at the Teatro Regio in Turin. In 1895 he returned to Turin to sing Enrico to the Lucia of Regina Pinkert, and perform Lescaut in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité . It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication...
. He returned to Turin several more times during his career, notably creating the role of Count Narval in Arturo Buzzi Peccia's La forza d'amore in 1897.
Over the next thirteen years, Polese performed leading opera roles all over Europe. He performed in operas in Athens, Bari, Bucharest, Cadiz, Cagliari, Cremona, Florence, Forlì, Genoa, Lemberg, Lonigo, Lisbon, Macerata, Madrid, Modena, Novara, Odessa, Palermo, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Rome, Seville, Trieste, Udine, and Vienna among other cities. Outside of Europe, he made appearances in Argentina (1901), Chile (1898), Egypt (1904-1906), and Mexico (1906). Some of the roles he performed during these years were Albert in Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, Alphonse in La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
, Amonasro in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Antonio in Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on May 19, 1842.-Performance history:...
, Athanaël in Thaïs
Thaïs (opera)
Thaïs is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel Thaïs by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on 16 March 1894, starring the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written the title role...
, Caoudal in Sapho, Conte di Luna in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, De Siriex in Fedora, Don Carlo in La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
, Dr Malatesta in Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, Escamillo in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Figaro in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
, Friedrich of Telramund in Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, Ford in Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
, Gerard in Andrea Chenier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, Germont in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Guglielmo in Le Villi
Le Villi
Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. Karr's story was in turn based in the Central European legend of the Willis, also used in the ballet Giselle...
, the High Priest of Dagon in Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (opera)
Samson and Delilah , Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire...
, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
, Kyoto in Iris
Iris (opera)
Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times...
, Lescaut in Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Marcello in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Nevers in Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
, Renato in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Riccardo Forth in I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, Scarpia in Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, Silvio in Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
, Valentin in Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, Wolfram in Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, and the title roles in Guillaume Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
and Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
.
Singing and teaching in the United States
From 1908-1910, Polese was a member of Oscar Hammerstein IOscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
's Manhattan Opera Company
Manhattan Opera Company
The Manhattan Opera Company was an opera company based in New York City. Active from 1906 until 1910, it was founded by Oscar Hammerstein I.The company began operations in 1906 at the Manhattan Opera House on 34th Street in New York City...
in New York City and their sister company in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Opera Company
Philadelphia Opera Company
The Philadelphia Opera Company was the name of two different American opera companies active during the twentieth century in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first company was founded by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I in 1908. That company disbanded only two years later as a result of financial...
. During that time he was heard at the Manhattan Opera House in New York as Alfio, Amonasro, Enrico, Figaro, Marcello, Nevers, Riccardo, Rigoletto, and Scarpia. He also performed those role at the Philadelphia Opera House
Metropolitan Opera House (Philadelphia)
The Metropolitan Opera House is a historic opera house located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 858 North Broad Street. Built over the course of just a few months in 1908, it was the ninth opera house built by impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. It was initially the home of Hammerstein's Philadelphia...
, and was also heard in Philadelphia as the Count di Luna, Germont, Iago in Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
, Tonio, and Valentine.
After both of Hammerstein's opera companies dissolved in 1910, Polese joined the roster of artists at the Boston Opera Company
Boston Opera Company
The Boston Opera Company was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active from 1909 to 1915.-History:The company was founded in 1908 by Bostonian millionaire Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr. and impresario Henry Russell...
where he remained committed through 1913. At the Boston Opera House
Boston Opera House (1909)
The Boston Opera House was an opera house located on Huntington Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. It opened in 1909 as the home of the Boston Opera Company and was demolished in 1958 after years of disuse....
he performed the roles of Alfio, Amonasro, Count di Luna, Enrico, Figaro, Germont, Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
, Marcello, Rafaele in I gioielli della Madonna
I gioielli della Madonna
I gioielli della Madonna is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Carlo Zangarini and Enrico Golisciani, based on news accounts of a real event....
, Riccardo, Scarpia, Sharpless, and Tonio. In the Fall of 1913 he left the Boston Opera to join the Chicago Grand Opera Company
Chicago Grand Opera Company
Two grand opera companies in Chicago have gone by the name Chicago Grand Opera CompanyThe first Chicago Grand Opera Company produced four seasons of opera in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from the Fall of 1910 through November 1915. It was the first resident Chicago opera company...
(CGOC) where he made his debut as Marcello. With the company he notably performed the role of Don Fulgenzio in the world premiere of Attilio Parelli
Attilio Parelli
Attilio Enrico Paparella, known professionally as Attilio Parelli was an Italian conductor and composer....
's I dispettosi amanti (1912), and portrayed Egisto in the United States premiere of Vittorio Gnecchi's Cassandra (1914). He also performed the roles of Amonasro, Count di Luna, Enrico, Germont, and Rafaele for the company. He also made guest appearances with the Baltimore Opera Company
Baltimore Opera Company
The Baltimore Opera Company was an opera company in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., based at the Baltimore Lyric Opera House. On March 12, 2009, the 58-year-old opera company announced plans to pursue Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation....
(1912, 1914), and appeared in operas in Springfield (1911), Portland (1911), New Haven (1912) and Minneapolis (1914).
After the CGOC went bankrupt in 1915, Polese returned briefly to Europe to perform in operas in Carrara, Verona, and at the Teatro Carlo Felice
Teatro Carlo Felice
The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari....
in Genoa. He returned to Chicago in 1916 to join the newly formed Chicago Opera Association
Chicago Opera Association
The Chicago Opera Association was a company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from 1915 to 1921. The founding artistic director and principal conductor was Cleofonte Campanini, while the general manager and chief underwriter was Harold F. McCormick...
. He performed one season with company, portraying the roles of Alfio, Enrico, Ford, Germont, and Sharpless. With the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he returned to Italy, and was not seen again on the stage until 1918 when he appeared in operas in Como, Ferrara, and New York. He then retired from the stage and begam teaching singing in New York City and later in Boston. He came out of retirement in 1926 to join the roster of artists at the Chicago Civic Opera
Chicago Civic Opera
The Civic Opera Company was a Chicago company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in the Auditorium Theater from 1922 to 1928, and three seasons at its own Civic Opera House from 1929 to 1931 before falling victim to financial difficulties brought on in part by the Great Depression.-...
. He sang three seasons with that company, performing the roles of Abimélech and the High Priest of Dagon in Samson and Delilah, Count di Luna, Ford, and Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
. His final opera performance was as the High Priest in Chicago in January 1928. He thereafter taught singing in Boston up into the last year of his life. He died in 1952 in Induno Olona, Italy.