After attending the Sistine Chapel choir school from age seven,[1] he studied voice with the celebrated baritone Giuseppe Kaschmann (Josip Kašman, 1847–1925) and cast aside his initial ambitions to become an architect.

Initially, he performed the standard bass parts there, such as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.

However, on the advice of La Scala's principal conductor, Arturo Toscanini, he decided to specialise in comic roles.

He thus went on to make an indelible impression as Leporello in Don Giovanni, Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore, the title character in Don Pasquale, Varlaam in Boris Godunov, the title character in Falstaff and the name part in Gianni Schicchi.

He created several operatic roles, too, including that of L'uomo di legge (the Lawyer) in Umberto Giordano's Il re (at La Scala in 1929) and parts in Riccardo Zandonai's La farsa amorosa (Rome, 1933) and Vigna by Guido Guerrini (Rome, 1935).