Roberto Stagno

He became an important interpreter of verismo music when it burst on to the operatic scene during the 1890s; but he also possessed an agile bel canto technique which he employed in operas dating from earlier periods.

His career breakthrough came three years later, however, when he substituted successfully for Italy's most celebrated dramatic tenor, Enrico Tamberlik, in a Madrid performance of Robert le diable.

Stagno was popular, too, in Argentina, where he appeared initially in 1879, and he also performed for one entire season (1883–84) in the United States, at the New York Metropolitan Opera where he sang leading roles in the company premieres of several core works of the Italian repertory including Il trovatore, I puritani, Rigoletto, and La Gioconda.

Unfortunately for Stagno, his time in New York was to prove shorter than he would have liked: American audiences expressed reservations about his singing because of its pronounced and persistent vibrato.

Then, in Rome, on 17 May 1890, he made operatic history when he created the role of Turiddu at the first performance of Mascagni's enduringly popular and highly influential one-act verismo work, Cavalleria rusticana.