Biography
Salvatore Baccaloni was an Italian operatic bass and actor. Born in Rome in 1900, he studied with baritone Giuseppe Kaschmann and made his operatic debut as Don Bartolo in The Barber of Seville at the Teatro Adriano in Rome in 1922. He performed regularly at La Scala from 1926 and became noted for buffo roles such as Leporello in Don Giovanni and the title character in Don Pasquale.
Baccaloni made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1940 and remained a leading comic bass there until the early 1960s. He also appeared in several films, including Full of Life (1956) as Papa Vittorio Rocco, Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958) as Gigi 'Papa' Naples, Merry Andrew (1958) as Antonio Gallini, Fanny (1961) as Escartifigue (Ferryboat Captain), and The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) as Ciccio Massimo. He died in New York City in 1969.
