The son of a blacksmith, de Luca sang as a young boy in church choirs in Rome. When his voice broke, a wealthy patron paid for him to study at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia with Venceslao Persichini, one of the leading teachers of the period who also taught Mattia Battistini and Titta Ruffo, and with Antonio Cotogni. He made his operatic debut as Valentin / Faust in 1897 at Piacenza.

An immediate success, de Luca was invited to sing throughout Italy. He created the leading baritone role of Michonnet in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at the Teatro Lirico in Milan in 1902 and during the following year made his debut at La Scala, Milan as Alberich / Das Rheingold. Shortly afterwards he created the parts of Gleby in Giordano’s Siberia (1903) and of Sharpless in the unsuccessful first performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904), both at La Scala.

By now de Luca’s fame had travelled abroad and he was invited to sing in South America, at Santiago (1905) and at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires (1906–1910), returning in 1912 to create the role of the Minstrel in Humperdinck’s Königskinder under Toscanini. Between 1907 and 1911 he appeared regularly at Covent Garden, London, making his debut as Sharpless and later singing Enrico / Lucia di Lammermoor, Barnaba / La Gioconda and Renato / Un ballo in maschera. English critics praised him for both the quality of his voice and for his ‘artistic sincerity of purpose’. Elsewhere in Europe he sang at Bucharest (1907) and Vienna (1909), as well as at Paris and Brussels; and between 1906 and 1912 undertook an annual tour of Russia, appearing at the opera houses of Moscow, Odessa and Kiev, as well as Warsaw. Throughout this period he was active in Italy, appearing regularly at La Scala, Milan and at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome as well as at other leading Italian opera houses.

While singing in Havana in 1915 de Luca received an invitation from Gatti-Casazza to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. After his debut there as Figaro / Il barbiere di Siviglia during November 1915, the Met was his artistic home for the next twenty years. He became one of the most popular and respected members of the company, equally at home in the Italian and French repertories, giving more than 900 performances in fifty-two roles. In addition to the traditional baritone repertoire, he created the role of Paquiro in Granados’s Goyescas (1916) and the title part in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (1918). He took part in the first American performances of Mârouf by Rabaud (1917), La forza del destino (with Caruso and Ponselle, 1920), L’italiana in Algeri, Turandot and Respighi’s La campana sommersa, as well as the New York premieres of Eugene Onegin (1920), Così fan tutte (1922) and Le Roi de Lahore; also the first Met productions of Don Carlo, La vestale, Luisa Miller (1929), Linda di Chamounix and Don Quichottte (1926).

When the management of the Met reduced their soloists’ fees in 1935, de Luca left the company for Italy, where he remained active, but returned to sing the title role in Rigoletto, Germont père / La traviata and Figaro during the Met’s 1939–1940 season. During World War II he was confined to Italy, but having gone back to New York as soon as the war was over he continued to give concerts until in November 1947, fifty years after his debut and at the age of seventy, he gave his farewell New York recital. He remained in New York, teaching at the Juilliard School: one of his pupils was the baritone Leonard Warren.

Toscanini described de Luca as ‘absolutely the best baritone I ever heard’. He possessed a perfect bel canto technique and although his voice was not large, his vocal mastery enabled him to sing well into his old age. In addition he delighted audiences with his knowing stagecraft in both comic and dramatic roles. Throughout his career he made a large number of recordings: the early discs for Fonotipia display a youthful brilliance, while those made for Victor between 1917 and 1930 are models of vocal elegance. Frequently he recorded in duet with distinguished contemporaries such as Martinelli, Galli-Curci, Gigli, Pons and Rethberg. The Austrian critic Clemens Höslinger has described his recordings as ‘among the most treasured bel canto documents known to posterity’.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).