Sammarco, (Giuseppe) Mario

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Sammarco, (Giuseppe) Mario

Sammarco, (Giuseppe) Mario , Italian baritone; b. Palermo, Dec. 13, 1868; d. Milan, Jan. 24, 1930. He studied singing with Antonio Cantelli, making a successful debut as Valentine in Faust in Palermo (1888); then sang in Brescia, Madrid, Lisbon, Brussels, Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin, and Vienna. After his London appearance as Scarpia in Tosca at Covent Garden in 1904, he sang there every season until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He made his American debut as Tonio (Feb. 1, 1908) at the Manhattan Opera House in N.Y.; from 1910 to 1913 he sang with the Chicago Grand Opera; retired from the operatic stage in 1919 and later settled in Milan as a teacher. He was one of the finest verismo singers of his time.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire