Roberto Stagno

Roberto Stagno (Palermo, 1840 – Genoa, 1897) was an Italian tenor whose career unfolded across the leading opera houses of his day. Trained in Milan under the maestro Lamperti, he made his debut in 1862 in Lisbon, singing Rodrigo in Rossini's Otello.

His career took him to Madrid, Venice, Rome, Naples and Florence, as well as to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he sang Enzo in the first New York staging of La Gioconda, in 1883. His repertoire ranged from roles by Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini to works by Verdi, Meyerbeer and Wagner, including Manrico, Radamès and Lohengrin. In Buenos Aires he also sang the title role of Verdi's Otello in 1888.

Stagno held a prominent place in the premieres of two landmarks of verismo: Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, in 1890, and the first performance of Giordano's Mala vita at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, in 1892. His powerful and flexible voice allowed him to tackle a wide variety of roles.

Stagno was married to the soprano Gemma Bellincioni, and their daughter, Bianca Stagno-Bellincioni, also a soprano, performed in Naples, Barcelona, Rome and Lisbon, and made her debut at Covent Garden in 1914.