Text Box:  OPERA autographs
Text Box: HARMONIE AUTOGRAPHS AND MUSIC INC.

MUSIC AUTOGRAPHS & ANTIQUARIAN
Text Box: MUSIC AUTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA BOUGHT AND SOLD

Price: $150.00

MINT CONDITION

JOSEPH BENTONELLI - TENOR

Original Maurice Seymour autographed and inscribed 8” x  10” photograph of the “Oklahoma Tenor” as Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly,” 1940.  Bentonelli, really Benton, originally studied in Chicago with Oscar Saenger, then headed to Paris and Nice to study with the great Jean de Reszke.  He made his debut in Nice as Don Ottavio in 1924 and sung in the Provinces and North Africa until 1929 when he begun his Italian career as Giuseppe Bentonelli at no less a stage than the Arena di Verona!  He created the role of Valeriano in Refice’s “Cecilia” in Rome opposite Claudia Muzio.  He went back to the U.S. in 1934, where he was a leading tenor in both Chicago and New York until his retirement in 1940.  He resumed a concert career in 1960 and taught voice at the University of Oklahoma until 1969.

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