Roberto Stagno

Alessandro Stradella – Genova, 29 October 1863
Il furioso nell'isola di San Domingo – Genova, 21 November 1863
Saffo – Lisboa, 18 October 1864
Otello (by Rossini: Rodrigo) – Lisboa, 2 December 1864
Semiramide – Lisboa, 18 December 1864
La pazza per amore – Lisboa, 20 January 1865
Don Pasquale – Lisboa, 26 February 1865
Roberto il diavolo (Rambaldo) – London, 27 July 1865
Faust – Manchester, 11 September 1865
Norma – Manchester, 12 September 1865
La traviata – Dublin, 22 September 1865
Lucrezia Borgia – Dublin, 28 September 1865
Der Freischütz – Dublin, 4 October 1865
Fidelio (Jacquino) – London, 24 October 1865
Il trovatore – London, 7 April 1866
Martha – London. April 1866
Fidelio (Florestan) – London, 21 April 1866
Dinorah – London, 26 May 1866
Die Entführung aus dem Serail – London, 30 June 1866
Don Giovanni – Barcelona, November 1866
Roberto il diavolo (Roberto) – Barcelona, November 1866
Rigoletto – Barcelona, 10 December 1866
Beatrice di Tenda – Barcelona, December 1866
Gli ugonotti – Barcelona, January 1867
Rehabra – Barcelona, 21 March 1867
Lucia di Lammermoor – Sevilla, 23 April 1867
La favorita- Sevilla – Sevilla, 11 March 1867
Un ballo in maschera – Sevilla, 5 June 1867
L'ebrea (Leopoldo) – Barcelona, 19 October 1867
Otello (by Rossini: Otello) – Barcelona, 26 October 1867
Dinorah – Barcelona, 11 February 1868
Fra Diavolo – Barcelona, 21 March 1868
Mosè – Moscow, 1 October 1868
Masaniello – Moscow, 17 October 1868
Guglielmo Tell – Moscow, 12 November 1868
L'africana – St. Petersburg, 12 December 1868
Don Carlo – St. Petersburg, 1 January 1869
Roméo et Juliette – Warsaw, 8 April 1869
Le prophète – Moscow, January 1870
Poliuto – Sevilla, 5 May 1870
Ernani – Sevilla, 12 June 1870
Il barbiere di Siviglia – Lisboa, 9 February 1872
I puritani – Bad Homburg, 27 August 1872
Linda di Chamounix – Bad Homburg, 31 August 1872
La sonnambula – Venezia, April 1874
Aida – Malaga, May 1875
Mignon – Madrid, 5 April 1877
Ero e Leandro – Buenos Aires, 1 August 1879
Lohengrin – Rome, 4 April 1880
Il duca d'Alba – Napoli, 19 April 1882
La Gioconda – New York, 20 December 1883
Mefistofele – Buenos Aires, 9 June 1886
L'ebrea – Buenos Aires, 4 August 1887
Il vascello fantasma – Buenos Aires, 9 August 1887
Otello (by Verdi: Otello) – Buenos Aires, 12 June 1888
Labilia – Roma, 8 May 1890
Cavalleria rusticana – Roma, 17 May 1890
Rudelio – Roma, 28 May 1890
Carmen – Bilbao, 30 March 1891
Mala vita – Roma, 11 February 1892
L'amico Fritz – Napoli, 29 March 1892
A Santa Lucia – Berlin, 16 November 1892
La martyre – Napoli, 23 May 1894
Nozze istriane – Trieste, 28 March 1895
Mara – Firenze, Spring 1895
Silvano – Livorno, 16 August 1895

I would like to thank Tom Kaufman for putting a copy of his unpublished chronology on Stagno at my disposal.

Born Vincenzo Andreoli into a noble family, he studied law first, and then, against the will of his father, voice with Cantelli in Palermo and with Lamperti in Milano.

About his early career, almost all sources (Wikipedia in all languages, Kutsch & Riemens, the Treccani Encyclopedia...) state that he made his debut in 1862 in Lisbon as Rodrigo in Rossini's Otello, and that he had his first major success when substituting Enrico Tamberlick as Robert le diable in Madrid in 1865. Both is incompatible with Tom Kaufman's above chronology. Now of course, everybody can fail, but in the case of Kaufman, who was a renowned expert on 19th century singing and above all on Meyerbeer, it doesn't seem terribly probable. Add to this that Tamberlick doesn't seem to have had any Madrid contract in 1865 (he was a member of the Teatro Real in the 1840s, in 1867 and throughout the 1870s), and that another source, totally unrelated to Stagno or Tamberlick, reports that Robert le diable was given in Madrid for the very first time in 1879... and you may arrive at the conclusion that Stagno's 1865 Madrid triumph is a myth, copied from one reference book to another.

Anyway, he soon made a career of the very first rank: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Argentina, United States (he was a member of the Metropolitan Opera for the 1883/84 season). And Robert le diable was in fact his favorite role, followed by Raoul, Don Ottavio, Manrico, Pollione, Poliuto, Elvino, Faust, Gennaro, Radames and Lohengrin. What immortalized his fame was his participation, together with his life companion Gemma Bellincioni, in the world premiere of Cavalleria rusticana (Rome, 17 May 1890).