In 1958, Mauro emigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton. He studied voice first in Edmonton, then in Toronto, and started to sing
in the choir of the Canadian Opera Company. When that company's stopped in Edmonton (of all places!) in 1967, their Manrico lost his
voice halfway through the performance, and Mauro was asked to step in for him &ndash, that was his solo debut.
The same year, he got a contract as a house tenor at Covent Garden, where he stayed until 1972. From then on, he made an excellent
international career: in Canada (he had become a Canadian citizen in 1963), he appeared in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and
Victoria; in the USA, in San Diego, at the New York City Opera, the Met (1978–93, 188 performances), in San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore or Miami; in Europe, in Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Rome, Barcelona, Zürich, at the
Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala, the Arena di Verona, the Paris Opéra or Covent Garden. He retired in the mid-1990s.
His repertory went from Macduff, Hoffmann or Roméo in younger years to Radames, Canio or Otello in the second half of his
career. I heard him a few times; he was reliable and efficient, but neither his voice nor his singing nor his musical interpretations
were attractive in any form.
Reference 1: The Canadian Encyclopedia; reference
2: Kutsch & Riemens
