From A to Z: The Portrait Gallery

Photo by Y. Nikonovich (copy of portrait by Fisher), St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890s 10.6 х 16.3 cm Mattia BATTISTINI (1856 - 1928) was an Italian singer (drama baritone), here pictured as Yago in Verdi’s Othello. Battistini gained popularity after his performances in Opera di Roma, in Neapol, and La Scala in Milan, Italy. He had engagements all over the world and in 1892, came to Russia, where he was soon hailed as an undisputed opera chief. He spent 23 theater seasons in Russia (until 1916) and became a favorite singer of the Russian tsars and aristocracy, “a king of baritones and a baritone of the kings.” After the Russian communist revolution of 1917, he stopped coming to Russia.