Florencio Constantino Mapparì Edison 1906

Florencio Constantino (1869-1919) was born in Bilbao in Spain’s Basque region. He immigrated to Argentina in 1889 and initially made his living as a farming contractor. Constantino had always enjoyed singing and began vocal studies in the early 1890s. After a few local concerts and recitals, the tenor made his stage debut in Br&opera La Dolores at the Teatro Sol&in Montevideo in 1895. During this early period Constantino also made appearances in Lucia di Lammermoor, La Gioconda and Cavalleria Rusticana. After travelling back across the Atlantic, Constantino made his European debut in 1897 as des Grieux in Manon at the Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona. For the next two seasons, the Spanish tenor paid his dues in provincial Italian theaters and spent a good deal of time in the Netherlands, as well. By the early 1900s, Constantino was an international opera star, with appearances in the principal theaters of Madrid, Naples, Rome, Lisbon, Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, Nice and London. In 1906, he travelled to New Orleans and made his North American debut as Don Jos&in Carmen. Appearances in Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, Philadelphia, Toronto and Montreal followed and Constantino quickly established himself as a leading tenor in the U.S. The busy artist was a tremendous success at Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera in New York and was particularly popular in Boston. From 1907 until 1917, he sang regularly throughout the States in a wide variety of roles such as Rodolfo...