He was from a very poor family. A wealthy patron paid him an annuity and sent him to Milano for vocal studies. Bersellini made his
debut in 1889 at the Teatro del Popolo in his native Castelfiorentino as Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia.
Until 1918, he sang mostly in minor Italian theaters; some of the places where Roberto Marcocci lists him are actually quite unlikely
(how amazing that they ever staged opera there!): Pisa, Lodi, Montecatini, Sampierdarena, Monsummano, Faenza, Sansepolcro,
Bagnacavallo, San Miniato, Reggio Emilia, Piacenza, Lonigo, Lugo, Treviso, Lanciano, Cesena, Catanzaro, Perugia, Montegiorgio, Fermo,
Ascoli Piceno, Cesenatico, Trento, Alessandria, Vercelli, Arona, Carrara, Massa Fiscaglia, Codogno, Livorno, Novara, Empoli, Taranto,
San Giovanni Valdarno, Messina, Sanremo, Pistoia, Volterra, Como, Siracusa, Termini Imerese, Cremona, Mestre, Siena; as well as in
small theaters in more important cities: Teatro Drammatico Nazionale and Teatro Quirino in Rome, Teatro Storchi and Teatro Andreani in
Modena, Teatro Ristori in Verona, Teatro Garibaldi in Padova, Teatro dei Filodrammatici and Kursaal Diana in Milano, Teatro Olimpico
and Teatro Brunetti in Bologna, Politeama Reinach in Parma. Abroad, he sang in Malta (1892), Lugano (1895), Ciudad de Mexico (1901),
Havana (1902), Palma de Mallorca (1903), Valencia (1904), Lisbon (1905), Belem, Pernambuco, Bahia and São Paulo (1906),
Amsterdam (1906/07), Nice (1907), Bastia (1908 and 1909), Rosario (1909), Montevideo, again, Rosario, Córdoba (Argentina), Porto
Alegre and São Paulo (1910), and finally Ajaccio (1912) – once more, often at smaller venues, for instance the Teatro
Santana in São Paulo, the Coliseo Recrejos in Lisbon or the Paleis voor Volksvlijt in Amsterdam. But outside Italy, he also
sang on a few more important stages: the Teatro São José in São Paulo, the Teatro Colón in
Rosario, the Teatro Urquiza in Montevideo and the Teatro Principal in Ciudad de Mexico.
His repertory included (the list may well be complete): Gennaro, Almaviva, Duca, Ernesto, Paolino (Il matrimonio segreto), Tonio (Ruit
Hora by Ettore Ricci – Bersellini sang in the 1895 world premiere in Pisa), Fra Diavolo, Léopold, Elvino, Fernand, Carlo
Duresnel (Pipelet by Serafino Amedeo De Ferrari), Arturo (Puritani), Gounod's Faust, Rodolfo, Nemorino, Storico (La risurrezione di
Cristo by Lorenzo Perosi), Carlo (Linda di Chamounix), Massenet's des Grieux, Silfrido (Matelda by Gennaro Abbate), Edgardo, Canio, an
unknown role in the world premiere of Foscarina by João Gomes (São Paulo, Teatro Santana, 22 September 1906),
Wilhelm Meister and Alfredo. He didn't add any new roles after 1908.
Upon retiring, he returned to Castelfiorentino, where he would appear at the occasional charity concert.
Reference for all the biographical information: the fantastic website of Roberto Marcocci.
