The baritone Aldo Protti (1920-1995) was born in Cremona and studied in Parma. After war service he made his stage début as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Pesaro in 1948. Two years later he was engaged to sing Amonasro, and Gérard in Andrea Chénier at La Scala, where he would appear until 1963. He sang throughout Italy and also visited Spain, the United States and Switzerland. He was a regular member of the Vienna State Opera from 1957 for the following decade, singing all the main Italian baritone rôles that suited his voluminous tone. His last appearance was in 1989. He took part in two recordings of Otello as Iago (1954 and 1961), the title-rôle of Rigoletto (1953), as Germont père in La traviata (1954), Cilea’s L’arlesiana for the now defunct label Colosseum, and Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci for Philips.
