What opera was first performed by Monte Carlo in 1925 and starred operatic tenor Robert Nagy in 1981?
Robert Nagy (tenor) Robert Nagy (March 3, 1929 – November 7, 2008) was an American operatic tenor who had a lengthy and fruitful association with the Metropolitan Opera that lasted for three decades. His association with the Met began when he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1956. He mostly portrayed comprimario roles at the Met where his most memorable early role was the Messenger in "Aida"; a role he sang 172 times for the company. He notably sang in the world premieres of two operas by Samuel Barber at the Met: "Vanessa" (1958) and "Antony and Cleopatra" (1966). He also sang in the company premieres of "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (1966), "Billy Budd" (1978) and "L'enfant et les sortilèges" (1981). Although Nagy specialized in supporting roles, he also portrayed several leading parts at the Met, among them Florestan in "Fidelio", Herodes in "Salome", and the Drum Major in "Wozzeck'. He remained on the Met roster through the end of the 1987–88 season, performing 1,187 performances with the Met during his thirty years with the company.
Zanetto Zanetto is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. It received its first performance on 2 March 1896 at the Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Only 40 minutes long and with cast of two singers, "Zanetto" was originally described by its composer as a "scena lirica" (lyric scene) rather than an opera. It is set in the countryside near Florence during the Renaissance and tells the story of an encounter between a beautiful courtesan, Silvia, and a young wandering minstrel, Zanetto. The libretto was adapted from an Italian translation by Emilio Praga of François Coppée's play "Le passant" (The passer-by) in which the young Sarah Bernhardt had won fame in the "en travesti" role of Zanetto.