Giovanni Martinelli

He was an attendee at the closing night of the Old Met and the opening night of the New Met in, both in 1966.

Although he retired from the company in 1945, he continued to lead an active, vigorous life almost to the end of his days. A frequent attendee at Met performances, his entrances received as much applause as the evening's featured singers, sometimes more so.

A specialist in the French and Italian repertoires, who created the tenor leads in several Met premiers (Granados' "Goyescas," Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," Verdi's "Don Carlo," among many others), his greatest success came in 1937 in the title role of Verdi's "Otello," opposite Lawrence Tibbett and Helen Jepson.

He was the most famous Otello (in Verdi's opera) of the 1930s.

In 1926, he appeared in a Vitaphone short film, at the very beginning of the sound era, before "The Jazz Singer"(the first officially recognized talking picture) was ever released. Martinelli sang "Vesti La Giubba" from Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci".

His daughter Bettina was born in 1915. His son Antonio was born in 1917. His daughter Giovanna was born in April 1926.

One of the great voices of the Metropolitan Opera, the tenor Giovanni Martinelli has one of the longest tenures there of any principal artist (1913 - 1945) and a popularity with audiences that, at one point, was exceeded only by that of Enrico Caruso.