Flaviano Labò

You'll read that Labò was discovered by conductor Antonino Votto while a soldier in World War II; given his date of birth, it should be obvious that this is nonsensical. In reality, he began his vocal studies at a music school in Piacenza after the war, and auditioned at La Scala in 1949 – for Votto and Victor De Sabata, among others. He was successful and won a place at the opera school of La Scala, where Ettore Campogalliani was one of his teachers, whom he followed to Mantova later on so as to finish his studies.

Labò made his debut as Cavaradossi at the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza in 1954, and gave his farewell performance at the same theater in 1989 as Gabriele Adorno. The 35 years in between were filled with an exceptional international career. He made his Met debut as Radames in November 1957 (61 performances until 1971). 1959 was a spectacular year for Labò: he made his first appearances at the New York City Opera, in San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans, at Covent Garden (as Radames and at the Paris Opéra (as Radames again)! In 1960, he arrived at La Scala (debut: Don Carlos in French, 13 December 1960; 77 performances until 1984) and at the Vienna Staatsoper (17 performances until 1968). Other than that, he sang in Rome, Florence, Genova, Palermo, Verona, Venice, Torino, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Zürich, Monte Carlo, Brussels, Amsterdam, Budapest, Berlin (Deutsche Oper), Hamburg, Leipzig...

He died in a car accident in the Po valley's dreaded fog.

Reference 1, reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 3