Luigi Montecucchi

It was in fall 1891 that Luigi Montecucchi walked along the street, singing, and a passer-by told him that he had a voice worth training. The passer-by was Tullio Battioni, head of the municipal school of music at Acqui Terme, and he became Montecucchi's first teacher and his mentor, and even sponsored him financially, Montecucchi being from a very poor family. In April 1892, the young tenor already sang to an audience for the first time, in a concert organized by Battioni at Acqui Terme's Teatro Dagna, among others with the soprano Caterina Icardi. Montecucchi was judged the revelation of the evening, by the local press. The following year, he moved to Parma to study at the conservatory; Battioni accompanied him at the admission examination.

He made his debut on 1 February 1897 at the Teatro Toselli in Cuneo as Gounod's Faust; a reviewer from Acqui recounted the difficult beginnings of this career and the hostilities that Battioni had to endure because of his close patronage relationship with the young singer, and said that Montecucchi's voice was still not exactly large, but well-produced and with an utterly secure high C.

Career chronologies are of course never complete, and the one below makes no exception. In September 1897, Montecucchi sang in Parma in Nabucco – quite certainly as Ismaele, but we have no proof, and it's also unknown at which theater. In September, he gave a concert in Colorno.

His first major success came in February 1898 in Reggio Emilia as Wilhelm Meister. In November of the same year, he was Don José in Brescia, but again, it's not known at which theater (Grande or Guillaume?).

The long tour of Russia on which he departed in summer 1900 was with the Castellano company; he left them at the end of the year and went on to Tbilissi (Tiflis) on his own.

For the next years, I have nothing to add to the chronology. In 1906, he was Froh in Rome's very first Rheingold production.

It would seem that he left the stage as early as 1907, at 35 years old; in any case, he retired to Acqui Terme, where he was still alive in 1941, because in that year, he made a handwritten memoir album in which he recorded his career. The above picture is taken from that album – I suppose the engraving shows Montecucchi, but cannot vouch for it. In any case, the list of "opere eseguite" is in his own handwriting.

Reference: Corale Città di Acqui Terme. Periodico di informazione culturale, July 2003

Gramophone, Milano, late July 1901
	 
7"
3311G 	Rigoletto (Verdi): Questa o quella					52232
3313G 	Rigoletto (Verdi): La donna è mobile					52234
3315G 	Rigoletto (Verdi): Bella figlia dell'amore				52240
3316G 	Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini): Se il mio nome				52233
3320G	Bohème (Puccini): Ci lascerem (w. Adami)				unpublished
3332G 	Pagliacci (Leoncavallo): O Colombina					52225
3334G	Gioconda (Ponchielli): O grido di quest'anima (w. Corradetti)		54138
3335G 	Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti): Sulla tomba				52235
3336G 	Faust (Gounod): Salve, dimora						52226
3352G 	Bohème (Puccini): Signorina Mimì che dono raro				54072
	(w. Corradetti, Adami, N. Franchi, Luini)
3353G 	Mefistofele (Boito): Dai campi, dai prati				52245
3359G 	Faust (Gounod): Dammi ancor (w. Adami)					54074
3365G	Faust (Gounod): Sempre amar (w. Adami)					54075
3367G 	Traviata (Verdi): Parigi, o cara (w. Adami)				54077

10"
353G 	Bohème (Puccini): Ci lascerem (w. Adami)				54002
386G 	Favorite (Donizetti): Spirto gentil					52328
390G 	Gioconda (Ponchielli): O grido di quest'anima (w. Corradetti)		54003
391G	Gioconda (Ponchielli): O grido di quest'anima (w. Corradetti)		54003X
 	Traviata (Verdi): Parigi, o cara (w. Adami)				54008
410G 	Faust (Gounod): Tardi si fa (w. Adami)					54009

I would like to thank Richard J. Venezia for the recording.

Source for the chronology: the extraordinary website of Roberto Marcocci.