Magini-Coletti was born in 1855 in the medieval town of
Iesi (written Jesi in Italian), which is situated inland from
Ancona on central Italy's east coast. Published details of his early life are scant but sources agree that he studied singing during the 1870s with the distinguished pedagogue Venceslao Persichini at Rome's
Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia. (Persichini's other students included the lyric tenor
Francesco Marconi and Magini-Coletti's fellow baritones
Mattia Battistini,
Giuseppe De Luca and
Titta Ruffo.) In 1880, Magini-Colleti made his operatic debut at Rome's
Teatro Costanzi, as Valentin in
Gounod's
Faust. He continued to perform regularly at that opera house for the next seven years, in addition to making guest appearances in
Venice,
Florence,
Naples and other Italian cities. In 1887 he joined the roster at
La Scala, Milan, remaining there for three seasons and singing a variety of leading baritone roles. Most notably, he appeared as the character Frank in the world premiere of
Puccini's second opera,
Edgar, in 1889. A year later, he performed his first Count Di Luna in
Verdi's
Il trovatore at La Scala. This part became an especial favourite of his, and he reprised it in numerous houses during the remainder of his career. Between 1888 and 1891, Magini-Coletti sang to acclaim in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and France. He also crossed the Atlantic for a series of operatic engagements in Argentina, receiving further plaudits. In 1891 he joined the stellar roster of singers at the New York
Metropolitan Opera, participating to begin with in a two-month North American tour. His first performance with the Met touring company occurred on 9 November, in Chicago, as Telramund in
Wagner's
Lohengrin. His other roles on the 1891 tour included Hoël in
Meyerbeer's
Dinorah, Count de Nevers in Meyerbeer's
Les Huguenots and Amonasro in
Verdi's
Aida (opposite soprano
Lilli Lehmann and tenor
Jean de Reszke), not to mention the title part in
Mozart's
Don Giovanni. On 14 December 1891, Magini-Coletti made a successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera's headquarters in New York City, singing Capulet in
Gounod's
Roméo et Juliette. He performed numerous roles at that house over the next 12 months, including Count Di Luna, Alfio in
Mascagni's
Cavalleria rusticana, Don Pizarro in
Beethoven's
Fidelio, Escamillo in
Bizet's
Carmen and Figaro in
Rossini's
Il barbiere di Siviglia, among others. Magini-Coletti left America in 1892. He proceeded to pursue a busy schedule of operatic performances in Italy and other European countries, venturing as far afield as Russia and becoming a frequent guest artist at both the
Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Monaco and the
Royal Opera,
Covent Garden, in London. In 1900, he rejoined the La Scala company, performing numerous roles there for three seasons. Most notably, he appeared in the premiere of
Mascagni's
Le maschere in 1901. Also in 1901, he sang at La Scala in a memorial concert held to mark the recent death of Verdi, partnering the heroic tenor
Francesco Tamagno in a scene from
La forza del destino. The following year, he participated in La Scala's first ever production of
Weber's
Euryanthe. Magini-Colleti sang often under the baton of
Arturo Toscanini, La Scala's principal conductor, during this period. Toscanini was an ardent advocate of Wagner's music and he conducted Magini-Coletti in performances of
Tristan und Isolde,
Die Walküre and
Lohengrin. These landmark Wagnerian productions often featured Magini-Coletti's La Scala colleague
Giuseppe Borgatti—Italy's best
heldentenor. Other significant operas in which Magini-Coletti appeared during the course of his 30-year European and American career were Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor, ''
L'elisir d'amore, La favorita, Poliuto and Lucrezia Borgia'', Verdi's
Otello,
Falstaff,
Rigoletto,
La forza del destino,
Un ballo in maschera,
Luisa Miller and
La traviata, Puccini's
La bohème,
Berlioz's
La damnation de Faust and
Delibes'
Lakmé. He died in Rome, aged 57. ==Recordings==