Alessandro Bonci

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Alessandro Bonci (February 10, 1870-August 8, 1940) was an Italian tenor known for his association with the bel canto repertoire.

A native of Cesena, Bonci studied for five years at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, working with Carlo Pedrotti and Felice Coen; he made his debut in Parma in 1896, singing in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff at the Teatro Regio. Such was his success that before the eand of his first season he was engaged to sing at La Scala, where he made his debut in I Puritani. Appearances throughout Europe followed, and on December 3, 1906, Bonci made his American debut with the Manhattan Opera Company; again the opera was I Puritani. He stayed two seasons with the company, serving as a popular competitor to Enrico Caruso, then headlining the Metropolitan Opera. Bonci himself joined the Metropolitan in 1908, and joined the Chicago Opera in 1914. He also made a transcontinental tour singing song recitals between 1910 and 1911.

Bonci served in the Italian army during World War I, returing to America to tour for three seasons after the war; he again appeared at the Metropolitan, and sang in Chicago during the 1920-21 season. In 1922 and 1923 he served as the principal tenor of the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, teaching master classes across the United States in the following year. After 1925 Bonci entered partial retirement, devoting himself primarily to teaching in Milan; he died in Vitterba in 1940.