Antonio Pini-Corsi

Antonio Pini-Corsi (June [?] 1858 or 1859 – 21 April 1918) was an Italian operatic baritone of international renown. He possessed a ripe-toned voice of great flexibility and displayed tremendous skill at patter singing. Pini-Corsi participated in numerous operatic premieres, creating such roles on stage as Ford in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff and Schaunard in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. Part of the first generation of recorded musicians, Pini-Corsi was one of the finest buffo singers of his era.

Pini-Corsi was born into a musical family in Zara, later known as Zadar, in what is now Croatia. (Many of his relatives sang professionally, most notably his brother Gaetano, who was a successful operatic tenor.)

He made his professional opera debut in Cremona in 1878 as Dandini in La Cenerentola. Pini-Corsi subsequently appeared in opera houses throughout Italy for the next 15 years, specializing in the comic operas of Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti. He made his La Scala debut in 1892 as Don Rolando Ximenes in the first performance of the revised version of Alberto Franchetti's Cristoforo Colombo.

Pini-Corsi's career was now booming. In 1893, he returned to La Scala to portray the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto opposite Nellie Melba as Gilda. Shortly thereafter he portrayed Ford in the premiere of Verdi's final opera, Falstaff, at La Scala on 9 February 1893 at the behest of the composer, who admired his vocal skill and stage craft. During the course of that same year he also sang the role of Ford in Genoa, Rome, Venice and Brescia. He also made an appearance at the Vienna State Opera. On 14 May 1894 he made his Royal Opera House at Covent Garden debut as Lescaut in Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut. Five days later he returned to the house to sing Ford in the company's first production of Falstaff. He then joined the roster of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 1895, singing there on and off for two years.

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