Emilio De Marchi

Emilio De Marchi (Italian pronunciation: [eˈmiljo deˈmarki]; January 6, 1861 – March 20, 1917) was an Italian operatic tenor. He had a significant career during the late 19th and early 20th century, appearing at major theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1900, he entered the annals of musical history as the creator of the role of Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. Today, however, he has largely been forgotten because, unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not leave a legacy of commercial gramophone or phonograph recordings.

De Marchi came from Northern Italy's Lombardy region; he was born in Voghera. His voice was discovered during his military service, and he received professional singing lessons. In 1886, he made his operatic debut in Milan, at the Teatro Dal Verme, as Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata. Over the next few years he appeared at leading operahouses throughout Italy and Spain and was a member of a distinguished Italian operatic company which visited Buenos Aires in 1890. There he sang Don José, Enzo, and Faust (Gounod). De Marchi returned to Buenos Aires in 1895, 1896 and 1900 and his other roles were Raoul, Alfredo, Faust (Boito), Des Grieux (Puccini), Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Turiddu, and Samson. In Buenos Aires, he was the first Rodolfo (1896), the first Cavaradossi (1900), and sang at the premiere of Beruti´sTaras Bulba (1895).

He debuted at Italy's leading opera house, La Scala, Milan, in 1898 as Stolzing in an Italian-language version of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger. He proved to beca success at La Scala and was chosen by the composer Puccini to sing the coveted role of Cavaradossi in the first performance of Tosca, which occurred at Rome's Teatro Costanzi on January 14, 1900. A rising young tenor named Enrico Caruso, 12 years De Marchi's junior, had hoped to create Cavaradossi; but in the end, Puccini, although greatly impressed by Caruso's voice, decided to entrust the part to the more experienced singer.

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