Nicola Monti

Monti started his vocal studies at an early age, first in Milano, then in Florence, where he made his debut in a 1941 concert. The same year, he also sang on stage for the first time, as Duca di Mantova in Cagliari. But this early career was soon interrupted by the war, and after 1945, Monti worked in a pharmacy.

Only in 1949, he resumed his tenor activity. In 1950, he was accepted into the opera school of La Scala for further training. In 1951, he sang at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples first, substituting an ailing Cesare Valletti in La sonnambula; and at La Scala next (debut role: Nemorino). La Scala would be the center of his career, he sang there a lot until 1960. He was also regularly in Florence (both at the Teatro Comunale and the Maggio Musicale), plus he appeared in Rome, Bologna, Parma, Palermo, Catania, Como or Genova; and abroad, at the Holland, Wexford, Aix-en-Provence and Montreux festivals, as well as in Monte Carlo, Munich, Cologne, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Dallas, Mexico City and Lisbon. He retired early, in the late 1960s.

His repertory was exclusively lyrical, and almost exclusively belcanto: his most important roles were Elvino, Almaviva and Nemorino; he also sang a lot of Don Ottavio, Ernesto and Don Ramiro, plus Comte Ory, Almaviva also in Paisiello's Barbiere di Siviglia, Lindoro and Amico Fritz.

Reference 1 and picture source, reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 3