Francesco Tamagno was an Italian operatic dramatic tenor who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he sang Otello in the first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera. He is also the earliest Italian tenor of note to have left a sizeable body of recordings of his voice. He was one of the first international male public figures to admit that he was the single parent and caregiver of a daughter from her birth.
Francesco Tamagno
Tamagno as Otello, at the premiere at La Scala in 1887
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887.
Otello and Desdemona by Alexandre-Marie Colin, 1829
Verdi, c. 1870
Boito and Verdi at Sant'Agata
Francesco Tamagno as Otello in a costume designed by Alfred Edel for the original production