Nino Lollini

The below label calls Lollini a tenor of La Scala, the record ad further below a tenor of the Met. He was neither! Born Oreste Lollini in Italy, his singing got him out of abject poverty. I have no idea whether he ever sang in Italy; it's not very probable since at age 25, he already made some records for Odeon in France. He was a member of the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, but for lack of material about that (important) theater, I don't know which roles he sang there. He was a regular guest in Tours: Duca (1947, 1951 & 1955), Turiddu (1950), Canio (1946 & 1950), Rodolfo (1947, 1949 & 1953), Cavaradossi (1947 & 1949), Pinkerton (1947 & 1952). He was also a guest in Algiers in the 1949/50 season, and in Lille, he sang Duca in March 1951 and Rodolfo in December 1952.

After retiring from the stage, Lollini stayed in France and opened a philately shop in Falicon near Nice, which proved very successful and outlived Lollini, still thriving at a time when there were few philately shops left on this planet. To outlive Nino Lollini wasn't easy, either: he died at the tender age of 101 years.

Reference 1; reference 2: Opéra de Tours archives; reference 3; reference 4: Het Wekelijks Nieuws, 17 February 1951

Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the recording and the label scan.
Source for the two pictures of Lollini: the fantastic collection of Claude-Pascal Perna