Antonio Cortis

Antonio Cortis (12 August 1891 – 2 April 1952) was a Spanish tenor with an outstanding voice. He was acclaimed by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for his exciting performances of Italian operatic works, especially those by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and the verismo composers.

Cortis was born at sea but his birthplace is often given as Valencia, in which city he spent his infancy. (His name was originally Antonio Monton Corts but he changed it for theatrical purposes.) He studied music at the Royal Conservatory in Madrid and sang in a children's choir. In 1909, he and his widowed mother moved from Madrid to Barcelona, where he attended the local conservatory.

He made his stage debut in 1912 at the Liceo in Barcelona as a comprimario singer, but he gradually worked his way up to major roles at a variety of opera houses in Spain and South America, including the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. On the South American tour of 1917, the young tenor was befriended by the Metropolitan Opera star Enrico Caruso, who encouraged him to pursue his singing career in New York City. Cortis declined Caruso's offer of help due to personal reasons but he would henceforth model his singing technique on Caruso's great example.

His international career began in earnest with successful appearances in Naples and, more importantly, at Rome's Teatro Costanzi in 1920, where he signed a three-year contract. He proceeded to sing in , Milan, Latin America and Berlin and, most famously, with the esteemed company at the Chicago Civic Opera from 1924 to 1932. His debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, occurred in 1931, as Calaf in Puccini's Turandot. He appeared often on the Italian opera-house circuit during the early 1930s but success at Milan's La Scala, with its entrenched roster of popular Italian-born tenors, eluded him.

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