Mario Sammarco
Encyclopedia
Mario Sammarco (December 13, 1868, although some sources say 1867 - January 24, 1930) was an Italian operatic baritone
noted for his histrionic ability.
, Sicily
, and studied locally with Antonio Cantelli. He made his operatic début in Palermo as Valentine in Faust
in 1888. He subsequently sang to acclaim in Milan
(at La Scala
, Italy's most celebrated theatre), Buenos Aires
and London. Between 1904 and 1919 he appeared intermittently, in 26 different roles, at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
.
In New York City, he was hired by Oscar Hammerstein I
for his Manhattan Opera Company
as a replacement for the great French singing-actor Maurice Renaud
. He sang with the Manhattan company in 1908-1910, becoming its principal Italian baritone, but he never 'graduated' to the rival Metropolitan Opera
.
Sammarco next joined the Chicago
–Philadelphia opera company. His career there continued smoothly enough until 1913 when he encountered a disapproving Mary Garden
in a Chicago production of Tosca
. The soprano requested that he be replaced; but after he named some of his former distinguished (and uncomplaining) Tosca partners, notably Emmy Destinn
, the performances proceeded to be given to critical success.
His final operatic appearances were at the Teatro di San Carlo
in Naples in 1919.
Apart from Scarpia (his debut role at Covent Garden), he was a famous Rigoletto, Marcello, Germont, Renato, Enrico and Amleto, appearing opposite some of the finest singers of his day. No bel canto
specialist, he was at his best in ardent verismo
works, creating the roles of Gerard in Giordano
's Andrea Chénier
in 1896 and Cascart in Leoncavallo's Zazà
in 1900.
Sammarco was active during an era that was thronged with Italian baritones of exceptional ability. It was no small achievement for him to carve out a lucrative international career in the face of powerful competition from the likes of Mattia Battistini
, Antonio Magini-Coletti
, Giuseppe Campanari
, Mario Ancona
, Giuseppe Pacini, Antonio Scotti
, Eugenio Giraldoni
, Riccardo Stracciari
, Titta Ruffo
, Domenico Viglione-Borghesi, Pasquale Amato
and Carlo Galeffi
.
He taught singing after retiring from the stage and died in Milan.
s that he made prior to World War I
for the Fonotipia, Victor and Pathé companies—and for the forerunner of HMV
—are now available on CD reissues from various labels.
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...
noted for his histrionic ability.
Biography
Sammarco was born in PalermoPalermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, and studied locally with Antonio Cantelli. He made his operatic début in Palermo as Valentine 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...
in 1888. He subsequently sang to acclaim in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
(at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Italy's most celebrated theatre), Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and London. Between 1904 and 1919 he appeared intermittently, in 26 different roles, at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
.
In New York City, he was hired by Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar 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...
for his 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...
as a replacement for the great French singing-actor Maurice Renaud
Maurice Renaud
Maurice Renaud , was a cultured French operatic baritone. He enjoyed an international reputation for the superlative quality of his singing and the brilliance of his acting.-Early years:...
. He sang with the Manhattan company in 1908-1910, becoming its principal Italian baritone, but he never 'graduated' to the rival Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
.
Sammarco next joined the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
–Philadelphia opera company. His career there continued smoothly enough until 1913 when he encountered a disapproving Mary Garden
Mary Garden
Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...
in a Chicago production of 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...
. The soprano requested that he be replaced; but after he named some of his former distinguished (and uncomplaining) Tosca partners, notably Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn was a Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-dramatic voice. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.- Biography :...
, the performances proceeded to be given to critical success.
His final operatic appearances were at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
in Naples in 1919.
Apart from Scarpia (his debut role at Covent Garden), he was a famous Rigoletto, Marcello, Germont, Renato, Enrico and Amleto, appearing opposite some of the finest singers of his day. No bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
specialist, he was at his best in ardent verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
works, creating the roles of Gerard in Giordano
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
's Andrea Chénier
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....
in 1896 and Cascart in Leoncavallo's Zazà
Zazà
Zazà is an opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, with the libretto by the composer. Its première at the Teatro Lirico di Milano on November 10, 1900, starring Rosina Storchio as Zazà, Edoardo Garbin as Milio, Mario Sammarco as Cascart and Clorinda Pini-Corsi as Anaïde, and conducted by Arturo Toscanini,...
in 1900.
Sammarco was active during an era that was thronged with Italian baritones of exceptional ability. It was no small achievement for him to carve out a lucrative international career in the face of powerful competition from the likes of Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini was an Italian operatic baritone. He became internationally famous due to the beauty of his voice and the virtuosity of his singing technique, and he earned the sobriquet "King of Baritones".-Early life:...
, Antonio Magini-Coletti
Antonio Magini-Coletti
Antonio Magini-Coletti was a leading Italian baritone who had a prolific career in Europe and the United States during the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. A versatile artist, he appeared in several opera world premieres but was particularly associated with the works of...
, Giuseppe Campanari
Giuseppe Campanari
Giuseppe Campanari Cooke gives his date of birth as 17 November 1858 but this is unlikely given the d.o.b. of his brother Leandro. was an Italian-born operatic baritone and cellist...
, Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona , was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".-Career:Ancona was born into a middle-class Jewish family at Livorno, Tuscany,...
, Giuseppe Pacini, Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with great success at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Milan's La Scala.-Life:Antonio Scotti was born in Naples, Italy...
, Eugenio Giraldoni
Eugenio Giraldoni
Eugenio Giraldoni was an Italian operatic baritone who enjoyed a substantial international career. In 1900, he created the role of Baron Scarpia....
, Riccardo Stracciari
Riccardo Stracciari
Riccardo Stracciari was a leading Italian baritone. His repertoire consisted mainly of Italian operatic works, with Rossini's Figaro and Verdi's Rigoletto becoming his signature roles during a long and distinguished career which stretched from 1899 to 1944.- Life and career :Born near Bologna,...
, Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo , born as Ruffo Titta Cafiero, was an Italian opera star who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" , he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: "His was not a voice, it was a miracle" Titta Ruffo (9...
, Domenico Viglione-Borghesi, Pasquale Amato
Pasquale Amato
Pasquale Amato was an outstanding Italian operatic baritone. Amato enjoyed an international reputation but attained the peak of his fame in New York City, where he sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1908 until 1921....
and Carlo Galeffi
Carlo Galeffi
Carlo Galeffi was a leading Italian baritone, particularly associated with the operatic works of Giuseppe Verdi and the various verismo composers.- Life and career :...
.
He taught singing after retiring from the stage and died in Milan.
Recordings
Sammarco possessed a strong voice with a powerful upper register; but, on disc at least, the technical quality of his singing disappoints and the timbre of his voice can sound rough. He impresses most when delivering declamatory passages in verismo operas (see Scott, cited below). Many of the numerous 78-rpm gramophone recordGramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s that he made prior to 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...
for the Fonotipia, Victor and Pathé companies—and for the forerunner of HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
—are now available on CD reissues from various labels.
Sources
- Celletti, Rodolfo (1964). Le Grandi Voci. Istituto per la Collaborazione Culturale (Rome)
- Kutsch, K. J. and Riemens, Leo (1969). A Biographical Dictionary of Singers. Chilton Book Company (New York)
- Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
- Scott, Michael (1977), The Record of Singing (Volume One). Duckworth (London), 243 pages, ISBN 0 7156 1030 9