Agostino Gnaccarini

Agostino Gnaccarini was an Italian baritone whose recordings survive from among the earliest made by any Italian singer. Born near Bologna, he made his stage debut in 1879 at Pisa's Teatro Rossi in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and created Rodrigo, marchese di Posa in the 1886 Modena Don Carlo. His repertoire ranged from Guglielmo in Puccini's Le Villi and Iago in Otello to Wagner's Wanderer in Siegfried and the Count in Le Cid, taking him to Turin, Bologna, Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Venice. He retired from the stage in 1912, having recorded for Columbia's Milan catalogue.