Francesco Daddi

Francesco Daddi was an Italian tenor born in Naples in 1864 who built a career in opera before appearing on Broadway in 1908. He died in Chicago on 22 October 1945.

Daddi's training encompassed both singing and piano, and he launched his operatic career with a debut at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan in 1891. The following year, at that same theater, he created the role of Beppe in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. In 1900 he relocated to London, where he performed a full opera season at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

His focus on supporting roles brought him to the United States, where in 1907 he performed at the Manhattan Opera House. During his American years he shared the stage with prominent singers including Enrico Caruso, Marcella Sembrich, Louise Homer, Marcel Journet, and Antonio Scotti. His Broadway appearance came in 1908, when he was credited in Louise.

Daddi eventually settled in Chicago, where he transitioned into comic bass roles, continuing to perform in that capacity until his retirement from the opera stage in 1920. By 1926 he had established himself in Chicago as a teacher of singing and opera.

Throughout the peak years of his performing career, roughly 1900 to 1910, Daddi made numerous phonograph recordings for Columbia Records.