Viglione-Borghese, Domenico

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Viglione-Borghese, Domenico

Italian baritone; b. Mondovi, July 3, 1877; d. Milan, Oct. 26, 1957. He studied in Milan and Pesaro. He made his operatic debut as the Herald in Lohengrinin Lodi in 1899 and continued to sing in provincial Italian opera companies. In 1901 he gave up singing and went to the U.S., where he earned his living as a railroad worker in San Francisco. There he met Caruso, who recommended him to the impresario Scognamillo, who engaged him for a South American tour (1905-06); Viglione-Borghese subsequently pursued his career in Italy, retiring in 1940. He sang some 40 roles, the best known being Jack Ranee in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West,which he first sang in Brescia in 1911 and for the last time in Rome in 1940.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire