Nino Lollini

1910 – 30 November 2011

The below label calls Lollini a tenor of La Scala, the record ad further below a tenor of the Met. He was neither! Born Oreste Lollini in Italy, his singing got him out of abject poverty. I have no idea whether he ever sang in Italy; it's not very probable since at age 25, he already made some records for Odeon in France. He was a member of the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, but for lack of material about that (important) theater, I don't know which roles he sang there. He was a regular guest in Tours: Duca (1947, 1951 & 1955), Turiddu (1950), Canio (1946 & 1950), Rodolfo (1947, 1949 & 1953), Cavaradossi (1947 & 1949), Pinkerton (1947 & 1952). He was also a guest in Algiers in the 1949/50 season, and in Lille, he sang Duca in March 1951 and Rodolfo in December 1952.

After retiring from the stage, Lollini stayed in France and opened a philately shop in Falicon near Nice, which proved very successful and outlived Lollini, still thriving at a time when there were few philately shops left on this planet. To outlive Nino Lollini wasn't easy, either: he died at the tender age of 101 years.

Reference 1; reference 2: Opéra de Tours archives; reference 3; reference 4: Het Wekelijks Nieuws, 17 February 1951

Nino Lollini sings Ay, ay, ay

Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the recording and the label scan.
Source for the two pictures of Lollini: the fantastic collection of Claude-Pascal Perna

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