Leonard Warren, American baritone

"Leonard Warren, the great American baritone, was born on 21 April 1911 in New York City in the Bronx, the first of three children of parents who came from Russia. A descendant of three generations of furriers, Warren turned his back on his family's trade and began a singing career that took him from the Radio City Music Hall Glee Club to pinnacles of achievement in celebrated theatres and halls in North and South America and Europe. He become an interpreter of Verdi; no baritone of his era made such a mark in the parts that became his signatures: the title roles in Rigoletto, Macbeth, and Simon Boccanegra, Count di Luna in Il trovatore, Amonasro in Aida, Iago in Otello, Barnaba in La Gioconda, Tonio in Pagliacci, and Scarpia in Tosca."--BOOK JACKET.