Francesco Marconi by Esplugas

FRANCESCO MARCONI
(14 May 1853 – 5 February 1916)
Italian Tenor
Singing teacher, Ottavio Bartolini,gave him his first lessons. Later, he studied with , Venceslao Persichini, at the Rome Conservatory.
Marconi made his operatic debut in the Spanish capital of Madrid in 1878 at the Teatro Real, singing the title role in Faust by Charles Gounod. His debut was a success, and he was soon appearing regularly at Italy's premier opera house, La Scala, Milan, with lucrative summer seasons spent performing in South America, mainly at Buenos Aires. He also sang with distinction at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, for two seasons: 1883 and 1884.

He was engaged to perform the United States, and in New York City in 1888, he appeared as the protagonist in the first American performances of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello. singing often in Poland and Russia to considerable acclaim during the 1890s. While in Russia, he appeared at the imperial opera houses situated in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and added Anton Rubinstein's Nero and Peter Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin to his repertoire.

Marconi undertook in Europe and the two American continents included the principal tenor roles in the following works:

Lucrezia Borgia, Lucia di Lammermoor La favorita (all composed by Gaetano Donizetti), I Puritani (by Vincenzo Bellini), Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, La traviata and Aida (all by Verdi), La Gioconda (by Amilcare Ponchielli), Mefistofele (by Arrigo Boito), Ruy Blas (by Filippo Marchetti), L'Africaine and Les Huguenots (by Giacomo Meyerbeer) and Lohengrin (by Richard Wagner).