Maria Barrientos (1884-1946)
Riccardo Stracciari (1875-1955)

Dunque io son (Act II duet)
Il barbiere di Siviglia Gioacchino Rossini

Maria Barrientos, coloratura soprano, was born in Barcelona. After a short course of singing lessons at the Barcelona Conservatory, she made her début at the age of 14 at the Teatro Lirico in La sonnambula, followed by several other leading roles there and at the Teatro de Novidades. After further studies, she sang at Covent Garden (1903), at La Scala (1904-5) and at many leading theaters throughout the world. On January 31, 1916 she made her Metropolitan début in Lucia di Lammermoor, and appeared there regularly in the standard coloratura roles during the next four seasons. In later years she became an admired interpreter of French and Spanish songs, and made a valuable set of records, including de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españoles and Soneto a Córdoba with the composer at the piano. (notes from Desmond Taylor-Shawe)

Riccardo Stracciari, pictured here as Rigoletto, was born in Casalecchio di Reno on June 26, 1875. After a stint as a chorus member in operetta, he studied with Ulisse Masetti at Bologna. In 1901 he appeared in Lisbon, then sang at La Scala in the 1904-1905 season. Also in 1905 he made his début at Covent Garden, followed by the Metropolitan in 1906-1907, the Paris Opéra and the Real in Madrid in 1909, and other leading houses. After 1910 he sang mostly in Italy, Spain and Argentina, though from 1917 to 1919 he was a member of the Chicago Opera. As his vocal powers declined (starting about 1928), he devoted himself to teaching (Boris Christoff was one of his pupils), though he continued to perform until 1942, with one final opera appearance (La Traviata) at Milan’s Teatro Lirico in 1944. Stracciari died in Rome on October 10, 1955. To see a different photo and for comments on his singing, see the Stracciari page.

The recording is a late Columbia acoustic (ca. 1925)