17 Facts About Titta Ruffo

Titta Ruffo, born as Ruffo Cafiero Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career.

Maurel said that the notes of Titta Ruffo's upper register were the most glorious baritone sounds he had ever heard.

Titta Ruffo studied singing and voice production with several teachers.

Titta Ruffo made his operatic debut in 1898 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome as the Herald in Wagner's Lohengrin.

Titta Ruffo made his American debut in Philadelphia in 1912 and sang extensively in Chicago.

Titta Ruffo reached the New York Metropolitan Opera relatively late in his career, in 1922, as Figaro in The Barber of Seville, having enlisted in the Italian army during World War I Titta Ruffo would give a total of 46 performances at the Met from 1922 through to 1929.

Titta Ruffo retired in 1931, staying for several years in exile Switzerland and Paris.

Titta Ruffo wrote an autobiography, La mia parabola, which was translated into English in 1995 as My Parabola.

Titta Ruffo's sister was married to Giacomo Matteotti, after whose murder by the Fascists he had vowed never to sing in Italy again.

Titta Ruffo died in Florence, Italy from heart disease on 5 July 1953, aged 76.

Titta Ruffo's repertoire included most of the major baritone roles in French and Italian opera, including among others Rigoletto, Di Luna, Amonasro, Germont, Tonio, Rossini's Figaro, Valentin, Iago, Carlo, Nabucco, Vasco, Don Giovanni, Barnaba, Scarpia, Marcello, and Renato in Un ballo in maschera.

Titta Ruffo was renowned for his interpretations of several baritone parts in operas that are largely forgotten today, namely, the title roles in Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet and Franchetti's Cristoforo Colombo plus Cascart in Leoncavallo's Zaza and Neri in Giordano's La cena delle beffe.

Consequently, some conservative commentators compared Titta Ruffo unfavorably with his elegant Italian predecessor Mattia Battistini, who was a master of bel canto and the possessor of a leaner, more silvery timbre than Titta Ruffo's.

However, according to modern-day critics like John Steane and Michael Scott, the difference between the two great baritones was not quite as clear cut as some have suggested in the past, because both Battistini and Titta Ruffo displayed exceptional vocal agility and control plus the ability to sustain a long legato line.

Titta Ruffo made more than 130 78-rpm records, both acoustic and electric, first for Pathe Freres in Paris in 1904, and then exclusively for La voce del padrone beginning in 1906.

Titta Ruffo continued recording into the electrical recording era after 1925, but at far as one is able to judge most of his published electrical recordings caught him past his prime, with what Steane calls a "hollowness" now evident in his mid-range.

Titta Ruffo was the only male opera singer of his time who could compete, in terms of celebrity and fees, with Caruso.