Filippo Coletti

Filippo Andrea Francesco Coletti (11 May 1811 – 13 June 1894) was an Italian baritone associated with Giuseppe Verdi. Coletti created two Verdi roles: Gusmano in Alzira and Francesco in I masnadieri. Verdi revised the role of Germont in La traviata for Coletti, whose interpretation re-defined the role as it is known today. Coletti was, with Antonio Tamburini (1800–1876) and Giorgio Ronconi (1810–1890), one of the three leading baritones of 19th century Italy, an early model of a 'Verdi baritone'.

Born in Anagni, a small town southeast of Rome, Coletti started his career singing baritone coloratura roles in Rossini, Donizetti and Mercadante operas before moving on to vocally substantial Verdi repertory. Coletti gained notoriety in London for his unwitting role in the 1840 Haymarket Theatre riots, and later for his successful four-year London tenure, singing leading baritone roles. Coletti travelled extensively, singing in all major European theatres. Numerous accounts describe his acting as well as the beauty of his voice, which retained an agility and elegance over a long singing career. Coletti performed until 1869. Verdi considered casting Coletti in an unrealized King Lear opera-commission for Naples. After Coletti's retirement from the stage he published an Album Melodico of songs, as well as essays on singing and on opera.

For philosopher Thomas Carlyle Coletti was "by the cast of his face, by the tones of his voice, by his general bearing,... a man of deep and ardent sensibilities, of delicate intuitions, just sympathies; originally an almost poetic soul, or man of genius."

Filippo Andrea Francesco Coletti was born on 11 May 1811 in Anagni, a medieval town located east-southeast of Rome, in the district of Frosinone.

Coletti's parents, Venanzio Coletti and Angela Viti, were of modest means and education. The Colettis had eight children: Rosa, Filippo, Andrea, Alessandro, Temistocle, Domenico and two other daughters. The family lived in the town center, on the corner of Via Maggiore and Vicolo Cellacchio. With Filippo Coletti's singing fees which were administered by his father Venanzio, the family moved into a large property outside Anagni in 1843. Venanzio continued to invest in land and buildings. Upon the death of Venanzio, the administration was taken over by Coletti's brother Andrea. The Coletti estate exists today as a winery, Coletti-Conti. Coletti's younger brother Domenico was an opera singer who moved to the United States and lived in New York.

In 1845 the 33-year-old Coletti married the seventeen-year-old Maria, daughter of Anagni's town clerk (Segretario comunale) Giovanni Ambrosi. The marriage was arranged by Coletti's father Venanzio, and proved to be a happy one. Filippo and Maria had four children: Tito, Decio, Lavinia and Valeria.

Coletti started his musical education in Rome, then moved to the Naples Real Collegio di Musica, where he studied with the tenor Alessandro Busti, a pupil of the castrato Girolamo Crescenti. Busti dedicated to Coletti a Studio di canto per baritono (published 1874). Coletti débuted at the Teatro del Fondo (1834) as Prosdocimo in Rossini's Il turco in Italia. His performance was considered a great success by the court and launched his career.

Coletti transferred to the neighboring Teatro San Carlo, where he sang coloratura and bel canto roles in Vincenzo Bellini's La straniera (Valdeburgo), Rossini's Mosè in Egitto, Maometto II and Semiramide (Assur), as well as Giuseppe Curci's cantata Ruggiero, in January 1835. Later that year Coletti created his first of many roles in a Giovanni Pacini opera – Briano/Wilfredo in Ivanhoe. Beyond Naples, Coletti appeared in the Carlo Felice in Genoa in the 1835–1836 season, sang in Donizetti's Gemma di Vergy at the Teatro Valle in Rome, and in Bellini's I puritani in Padova (1836).