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Mario Ancona (1860-1931) was an Italian baritone, born in Livorno, Tuscany to a Jewish family. A master of bel canto singing, he enjoyed an international reputation as a star of what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".
Ancona entered the world on February 28, 1860. After embarking on a business career he decided to study voice with Maestro Matteini in his native city of Livorno. Later, he took lessons from Giuseppe Cima in Milan. Ancona is said to have made his debut as an amateur singer as far back as 1880; but his earliest known professional appearance in an opera occurred in 1889, when he sang the role of Scindia in Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore in Trieste. Not long afterwards, he appeared in another Massenet opera, Le Cid, at La Scala, Milan.
On May 21, 1892, Ancona created the part of Silvio in the first performance of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, which took place at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme with Arturo Toscanini conducting. The next year, he appeared in the first London performance of Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. On this occasion, however, he sang the role of Tonio. (Nellie Melba and Fernando De Lucia were also in the cast.)
Ancona appeared regularly at Covent Garden until 1901, being held in high esteem by London audiences. He sang also as a guest artist in Cairo, Lisbon, Madrid, Warsaw, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chicago and Boston, as well as in South America.
The New York Metropolitan Opera engaged him in 1893. He sang successfully at the Met until 1897, when he went back to Europe. In 1906-1908, he returned to New York to join the Manhattan Opera Company. He became a special favourite of this company, which had been established by Oscar Hammerstein I in direct rivalry to the Met. His interpretation of Mozart's Don Giovanni was singled out for particular acclaim.
Ancona sang in Paris in 1908 and again in 1914 at the Sarah Bernhardt theatre, earning Bernhardt's praise for the quality of his singing. The great French thespian was not alone in her admiration for his vocal artistry. Music critics on both sides of the Atlantic commended Ancona on his elegant singing style and beautiful voice, with its excellent range and smooth, open-throated and homogenous tone production. Indeed, Jean de Reszke called him the best-schooled baritone of his era. He was not, however, much of an actor. Physically, he was reputed to resemble King Edward VII of England because of his pointed beard and well-padded frame.
Ancona's pre-verismo method of singing was particularly well suited to the works of Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. His repertory of Verdi roles included Germont, Rigoletto, Amonasro, Iago and Don Carlos in Ernani. He also undertook operatic roles composed by Puccini (Lescaut and Marcello), Mascagni (Alfio and David in L'amico Fritz), Giordano (Gerard in Andrea Chénier), Mozart (Don Giovanni and Figaro) and Wagner (Wolfram, Telramund and even Hans Sachs). He appeared in French opera, too, singing such roles as Nevers, Hoel, Scindia, Escamillo and Valentin, as well as performing the part of Zurga opposite Enrico Caruso in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.
He was still in good vocal shape when he elected to retire from opera in 1916, as World War I raged in Europe. In retirement, he devoted himself to teaching. He died of lung cancer in Florence on February 23, 1931. Fortunately, however, his thoroughbred voice lives on in a series of gramophone recordings which he made during the first decade of the 20th century, most notably for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1907-08. All his Victor recordings are available on CD transfers.