Mario Armandi

There's another, far less reliable anecdote about Armandi: he is said to have once stepped in as Pollione in Naples (at an unspecified theater), and was scheduled for the remaining six performances. The audience thought him to be inadequate (which no doubt he was, as Pollione), and hissed and shouted the entire first act, making him completely inaudible. At the end of the intermission, he stepped before the curtain, and asked for a deal: if the audience would let him sing for the rest of the evening, he would depart Naples after this performance; but if they'd continue to disturb him, he would fulfill his contract for all six performances. The audience agreed, and listened to him; and in the end liked him well enough to demand that he stay and sing the upcoming performances, as well. (I take this anecdote with a grain of salt since the – modern – source is really far from reliable; but on the other hand, it's beyond imagination that its author has ever heard of, or any idea about Mario Armandi, so he must have read something, somewhere that he grossly amplified to what I have tried to reduce again in my recount. So at least some "real" Armandi would seem to be at the core of that anecdote.)

Anyway, there's little doubt that Armandi spent most of his time in main roles at smaller theaters; whether he ever ventured into Pollione I cannot swear, but he did sing Canio (see chronology), which is certainly surprising enough. Because his only recording reveals remarkable musicality and an excellently trained voice, but definitely a tenore di grazia. The recording is a real pleasure to listen to, however!

Reference 1: Goudsche Courant, 31 March 1894; reference 2; reference 3: Gerard Guerra i Ribó, La recepció de "Manon Lescaut" de Giacomo Puccini a Barcelona (1896), Barcelona 2015; reference 4; reference 5: Ethan Mordden, Opera anecdotes, New York/Oxford 1985, p. 218-19