Riccardo Stracciari

During his two seasons at the Met, his roles included: Rigoletto, Ashton, Amonasro, Nélusko, Valentin, Marcello, Sharpless, Lescaut, Alfio, Tonio, and Di Luna.

But despite the high quality of the competition which he faced from rival singers, he is still widely considered to have been one of the finest Italian baritones of the 20th century, owing to the beauty of his voice during its peak period, his imposing interpretive style and his first-rate vocal technique.

America's foremost soprano of the post World War I-era, Rosa Ponselle, was an enthusiastic admirer of his singing, evaluating his voice as "brilliant and penetrating, alternately dark and light ... like a shower of diamonds.

Among his most notable students were Raffaele Arié, Paolo Silveri, Giulio Fioravanti, Zdeněk Otava, Mario Laurenti, Louis Quilico and Boris Christoff.

The respective casts are as follows: Riccardo Stracciari (Rigoletto); Mercedes Capsir (Gilda); Dino Borgioli (Mantua); Ernesto Dominici (Sparafucile); Anna Masetti Bassi (Maddalena); Diulio Baronte (Monterone); Aristide Baracchi (Marullo); Ida Mannarini (Giovanna/Contessa).

)[2] Riccardo Stracciari (Figaro); Mercedes Capsir (Rosina); Dino Borgioli (Almaviva); Vincenzo Bettoni (Basilio); Salvatore Baccaloni (Bartolo); Cesira Ferrari (Berta); Attilio Bordonali (Fiorello); Aristide Baracchi (Ufficiale).