Mario (tenor)

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Mario (October 18, 1810 – December 11, 1883) was an Italian opera singer, considered the most famous tenor of the 19th century. His real name was Cavaliere Giovanni Matteo di Candia.

Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Mario was the son of General di Candia. His career as a singer was the result of accidental circumstances. While serving as an officer in the Sardinian army he was imprisoned at Cagliari for some trifling offence. When his period of confinement was over, he resigned his commission. His resignation was refused, and he fled to Paris. There his success as an amateur vocalist produced an offer of an engagement at the Opéra. He studied singing for two years under M. Ponchard and Signor Bordogni, and made his debut in 1838 as the hero of Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable.

His success was immediate and complete, but he did not stay long at the Opéra. In 1839 he joined the company of the Théâtre Italien, which then included Maria Malibran, Sontag Persiani and Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache. His first appearance here was made in the character of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. He sang in London for the first time in the same year.

His success in Italian opera far surpassed that which he had won in French, and in a short time he acquired a European reputation. He had a handsome face and a graceful figure, and his voice, though less powerful than that of Rubini or that of Tamburini, had a velvety softness and richness which have never been equalled. Experience gave him ease as an actor, but he never excelled in tragic parts. He was an ideal stage lover, and he retained the grace and charm of youth long after his voice had begun to show signs of decay. He created very few new parts, that of Ernesto in Don Pasquale (1843) being perhaps the only one deserving of mention. Among the most successful of his other parts were Otello in Rossini's opera of that name, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia, Alamviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Fernando in La favorite, and Manrico in Il trovatore.

Mario made occasional appearances in oratorio singing at the Birmingham Festival of 1849 and at the Hereford Festival of 1855, and undertook various concert tours in the United Kingdom, but his name is principally associated with triumphs in the theatre. In 1856 he married Giulia Grisi, the famous soprano, by whom he had five daughters. Mario bade farewell on the stage in 1871. He died in Rome in 1883.