Constantino Folco-Bottaro

Constantino Folco-Bottaro was the son of Italian parents who lived in Ramos Mejia (Argentina); that he was born in Montevideo and thus in Uruguay must have been by mere coincidence. His father was Faustino Folco, his mother Maria Bottaro, hence his family name, following standards in Spanish, became Folco Bottaro, while his first name was Constantino. (Among non-Spanish speakers, this has caused some confusion, and many think Folco was his first and Bottaro his family name.)

The young man studied voice first in Buenos Aires, then in Milano with Vincenzo Pintorno. He made his debut in 1911 as Turiddu at the Teatro Sociale in Mantova, then he sang in various Italian cities (Genova, Modena and Cremona among them), and a few times at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Torino (for instance Turiddu in December 1915).

Turiddu was also his debut role at La Scala (30 March 1916, conducted by Mascagni himself, and with Hariclea Darclée and Giuseppe Danise); he also sang Paolo in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini there. In Milano, he later also appeared at the Teatro Carcano (1920, Chénier).

In 1923, he went back to South America, where he sang in Pizzetti's Deborah e Jaele and de Falla's La vida breve, both in Rio de Janeiro and at the Colón in Buenos Aires; at the Colón, he also sang Baldo in Primo Riccitelli's I compagnacci, and participated in the world premieres of two operas by Argentinean composers: Raquela by Felipe Boero and Ilse by Gilardo Gilardi.

In early 1925, he was again in Italy, and sang Giannetto in Giordano's new opera La cena delle beffe in Piacenza, and Andrea Chénier at the Teatro Nazionale in Milano, where critics found fault with his voice production. The seasons 1925/26 and 1926/27, he spent at the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, where he was highly successful. He sang Herodes in Cairo in 1928, and in La cabrera by Gabriel Dupont in Nice in 1930.

Giannetto was now his signature role, he sang it at many Italian theaters, and it also chose it for his farewell from the stage (1935, Vicenza). About the rest of his life, there is currently no information available. He never recorded.

Reference 1, reference 2, reference 3: Kutsch & Riemens (where he is erroneously filed under Bottaro)