(Giuseppe) Mario Sammarco (13 December 1868, although some sources say 1867 – 24 January 1930) was an Italian operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

noted for his acting ability.

Biography

Sammarco was born in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, and studied locally with Antonio Cantelli. He made his operatic début in Palermo as Valentine in ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...

'' in 1888. He subsequently sang to acclaim in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

(at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, Italy's most celebrated theatre),

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and London. Between 1904 and 1919 he appeared intermittently, in 26 different roles, at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) 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. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

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 si ...

. In New York City, he was hired by

Oscar Hammerstein I Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 18461 August 1919) was a German-born 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. He was ...

for his

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. History 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 Arnold Renaud (24 July 1861 – 16 October 1933) 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 Renaud was born ...

. He sang with the Manhattan company in 1908–1910, becoming its principal Italian baritone, but he never 'graduated' to the rival

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 ...

. Sammarco next joined the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

–

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

opera company. His career there continued smoothly enough until 1913 when he encountered a disapproving

Mary Garden A Mary garden is a small sacred garden enclosing a statue or shrine of the Virgin Mary, who is known to many Christians as the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady, or the Mother of God. In the New Testament, Mary is the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Mary ...

in a Chicago production of ''

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 dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...

''. 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 ( (); 26 February 1878 – 28 January 1930) 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 Destinn was born Emíl ...

, the performances proceeded to be given to critical success. His final operatic appearances were at the

Teatro di San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...

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 (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

specialist, he was at his best in ardent

verismo In opera, ''verismo'' (, from , meaning "true") was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini. ''Verismo'' as an ...

works, creating the roles of Gerard in Giordano's '' Andrea Chénier'' in 1896 and Cascart in

Leoncavallo Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera ''Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained his ...

's ''

Zazà ''Zazà'' is an opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, with a libretto by the composer. The story concerns the French music hall singer, Zazà, and her affair and subsequent decision to leave her lover, Milio, when she discovers that he is married. The mu ...

'' 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 (27 February 1856 – 7 November 1928) was an Italian operatic baritone, referred to as the "King of Baritones" in multiple publications.Steane, J.B., 1998. Singers of the Century, vol. 2. Amadeus Press, Portland, pp.&nbs ...

Antonio Magini-Coletti Antonio Magini-Coletti (17 February 1855 – 21 July 1912) 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 appeare ...

Giuseppe Campanari Giuseppe Campanari (17 November 1855 – 31 May 1927) James Francis Cooke (1921) ''Great Singers on the Art of Singing'', Theodore Presser Co.Cooke (1921) gives his date of birth as 17 November 1858 but this is unlikely given the d.o.b. of his b ...

Mario Ancona Mario Ancona (28 February 1860 – 23 February 1931), 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 "Golde ...

, Giuseppe Pacini, Antonio Scotti, Eugenio Giraldoni,

Riccardo Stracciari Riccardo Stracciari (June 26, 1875 – October 10, 1955) 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 dis ...

Titta Ruffo Titta Ruffo (9 June 1877 – 5 July 1953), born as Ruffo Cafiero (double forename) Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" ("voice of the lion"), he was greatly admi ...

Domenico Viglione Borghese Domenico Viglione Borghese (13 July 1877 – 26 October 1957) was an Italian operatic baritone and actor. Early life Born in Mondovì, he gave up his studies in medicine to dedicate himself to the study of singing, first in Milan and later with ...

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 ...

and

Carlo Galeffi Carlo Galeffi (4 June 1884 – 22 September 1961) was a leading Italian baritone, particularly associated with the operatic works of Giuseppe Verdi and the various verismo composers. Life and career Galeffi was born in Malamocco, the on ...

. He taught singing after retiring from the stage and died in Milan. One of his pupils was Sándor Svéd.

Recordings

Sammarco possessed a strong voice with a powerful upper register; but of all the celebrated singers preserved on early recordings, Sammarco's are regarded as the most disappointing. The technical quality of his singing disappoints and the timbre of his voice can sound rough. On record, according to Scott and Steane, he has a singular inability to sing less than mezzo forte and seems to have no concept of legato. He impresses most when delivering declamatory passages in verismo operas (see Scott, cited below) including an early (celebrated or notorious) recording with the soprano Emma Carelli from Tosca, complete with peals of laughter. Many of the numerous 78-rpm

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

s that he made prior to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

for the Fonotipia, Victor and Pathé companies—and for the forerunner of

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

—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. Karl-Josef Kutsch, also known as K. J. Kutsch, (born 11 May 1924) is a German physician and co-author with Leo Riemens of the ''Großes Sängerlexikon'', the standard reference for opera singers. Life and work Born in Gangelt, Kutsch studied me ...

and

Riemens, Leo Leonardus Antony Marinus Riemens (3 December 1910 – 3 April 1985) was a Dutch musicologist and cultural journalist. He wrote a book about Maria Callas, and together with Karl-Josef Kutsch began a reference book about opera singers in 1962, which ...

(1969). A Biographical Dictionary of Singers. Chilton Book Company (New York) *Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages, *Scott, Michael (1977), ''The Record of Singing'' (Volume One). Duckworth (London), 243 pages, {{DEFAULTSORT:Sammarco, Mario 1868 births 1930 deaths Musicians from Palermo Italian operatic baritones Fonotipia Records artists 19th-century Italian male opera singers 20th-century Italian male opera singers