Luca Botta (16 April 1882 – 29 September 1917) was an Italian operatic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

Biography

He was born in Amalfi, Italy on 16 April 1882. He studied singing at the Naples Conservatory before making his operatic debut as Alfredo in ''

La traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') 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'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...

'' in 1909. He made his

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

debut as Rodolfo in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions ''quadri'', ''tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe G ...

'' on November 21, 1914, and appeared in 91 performances with the company until his early death. He died of cancer in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 29 September 1917 at age 35. His funeral was planned to be held at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament but was moved to St. Patrick's Cathedral. He was buried in the

Cemetery of Poggioreale, Naples The Cemetery of Poggioreale is one of the major cemeteries in Naples, Italy. It is also known as Camposanto Nuovo, to distinguish it from Camposanto Vecchio, which is now known as Cemetery of the 366 Fossae. It is bordered by the Largo Santa Mari ...

and his pallbearers were:

Pasquale Amato Pasquale Amato (21 March 1878 – 12 August 1942) was an 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. E ...

Giuseppe de Luca Giuseppe De Luca (25 December 1876 – 26 August 1950), was an Italian baritone who achieved his greatest triumphs at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He notably created roles in the world premieres of two operas by Giacomo Puccini: Sha ...

Leon Rothier Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

Antonio Scotti Antonio Scotti (25 January 1866 – 26 February 1936) 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, a ...

, Francesco Romei,

Giulio Setti Giulio Setti (born Treviglio, October 3, 1869 - died Turin, October 2, 1938) was an Italian choral conductor. Biography He served as chorus master of opera houses in Italy, Cairo, Cologne, and Buenos Aires prior to coming to the United States in 1 ...

Gennaro Papi Gennaro Papi (December 21, 1886 – November 29, 1941) was an Italian operatic Conductor (music), conductor known for his work with the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Civic Opera companies. A native of Naples, Papi studied at the College or univers ...

, Fernando Carpi,

Giulio Crimi Giulio Crimi (May 10, 1885 – October 29, 1939) was an Italian operatic tenor. Biography Crimi was born in Paternò, kingdom of Italy, Italy. He studied in Catania with Adernò and made his debut in Palermo, as Manrico in ''Il trovatore'' ...

, Francis Charles Coppicus, G. Viafora, and Dr. Henry Holbrook Curtis.

Biography

References

Further reading