ABSTRACT
Italian tenor, born in Recanati, the son of a poor shoemaker. He went to Rome in 1907 for singing lessons, and won a scholarship to the Academy of Santa Cecilia. In 1914 he won an international competition in Parma, and made his debut in Rovigo in 1914, as Enzo Grimaldo. After singing to great acclaim throughout Italy for four years, he made his La Scala debut under Toscanini on 19 Nov 1918, and his Metropolitan debut (to 34 curtain calls) on 26 Nov 1920, both times as Boito’s Faust. He remained with the Metropolitan to 1932-leaving after a salary dispute-and again in 1938/39, singing 29 roles there (from the 60 he knew) in 375 performances. He appeared in six operatic Vitaphone motion pictures beginning in 1927. Later he made 16 full-length films in Hollywood, Italy, and Germany, and his voice was heard in several others. During the 1930s he won great popularity in London. He spent World War II in Italy, gave a series of farewell concerts around the world (the last in Washington, D.C.), and retired in 1956. He died in Rome.
