Mario del Monaco - O tu che in seno agli angeli (New Orleans, 1953)

Mario del Monaco (1915-1982) was a legendary Italian dramatic tenor, whose career took him to major theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. He was born in Florence to a musical family and began studying violin as a child. Singing, however, was his passion, and he gave his first public performance at the age of 13. Del Monaco’s operatic debut (of sorts) was as Arturo in an amateur production of Lucia di Lammermoor when he was just 17. Realizing that he was not the lyric tenor his teachers insisted he was, he entered Pesaro’s Rossini Conservatory, where he studied with Arturo Melocchi. The celebrated pedagogue helped to cement his student’s technique, allowing him to grow into a true dramatic tenor. In 1939 del Monaco debuted at the Teatro Comunale in Cagli as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. A more “official” debut occurred on New Year’s Eve 1940 as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Milan’s Teatro Puccini. WWII found the tenor serving in the Italian army, but after the war’s end, del Monaco’s career began in ea