Mario Sammarco

Admired for his versatility, he was at home in bel canto roles—Figaro, Enrico, Antonio in Linda di Chamounix, Alfonso in La favorita—and classic Verdian roles—from Carlo of Ernani, Rigoletto, Germont, and Renato to Iago and Falstaff—and in the more modern and verismo like Tosca and Pagliacci.

He was an important part of this era's operatic life, creating the roles of Gerard in Giordano's Andrea Chénier in 1896, Cascart in Leoncavallo's Zazà in 1900, and Wurms in Franchetti's Germania.

Though Sammarco was only around 5'4" tall,[1] Giacomo Lauri-Volpi calls his a "massive" and "accomplished" voice in a singer who "he knew how to declaim, with infallible intention and expression, and to captivate and move the audience where others merely look for applause."

However English critic Herman Klein, who saw and heard Sammarco numerous times at Covent Garden, states that his voice was one "of singular purity, breadth, and vibrant power, always in tune, well controlled, and capable of deep as well as varied expression."

[2] Many of the numerous 78-rpm gramophone records that he made prior to World War I for the Fonotipia, Victor, Pathé and the HMV companies are now available on CD reissues from various labels.