Andrea Maggi

Andrea Maggi used to be considered a mystery tenor: certainly one of the most distinguished singers in the early days of the gramophone (best "Se il mio nome" ever!), and yet no trace of a career could be found.
Thanks to the efforts of conductor and expert record collector Will Crutchfield, the mystery has been solved. Maggi was no opera singer – but one of Italy's best-known straight theater actors from the 1880s to his death in 1910. And an amateur singer, who used to entertain visitors to his dressing room in performance intermissions by singing operatic arias.

He made his debut at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in 1872, and other than as an actor, he was also successful as an impresario; once again, strictly in straight theater only. His most famous roles were Othello (Shakespeare, mind you, not Verdi), Hamlet, and Cyrano de Bergerac in Edmond Rostand's play.

That a (however gifted) amateur was able to sing so incredibly well is still astonishing; it would seem that he had never even taken any singing lessons. And he was 54 when making his recordings! Just amazing.

Picture source and reference 1: the much recommended website of Will Crutchfield; reference 2

 Discography
G&T/Zonophone, Milano, 1904
H114k		Fedora (Giordano): Amor ti vieta				92033 (7")
H243L		Tosca (Puccini): Recondita armonia			X-92039
H244L		Bohème (Puccini): Che gelida manina			X-92031
H245L		Mefistofele (Boito): Dai campi dai prati		X-92040
H246L		Fedora (Giordano): Mia madre				X-92032
H248L		Manon (Massenet): Chiudo gli occhi			X-92033
H259L		Iris (Mascagni): Apri la tua finestra			X-92046
H260L		Faust (Gounod): Salve, dimora				X-92047
H261L		Elisir d'amore (Donizetti): Una furtiva lagrima	X-92048
H262L		Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini): Se il mio nome	X-92049
H263L		Rigoletto (Verdi): Questa o quella				X-92050
H264L		Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea): No, più nobile		X-92051
H265L		Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea): L'anima ho stanca	X-92052