chicagoopera

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Riccardo Stracciari (June 26, 1875, Casalecchio di Reno – October 10, 1955, Rome) was a leading Italian baritone. His repertoire consisted mainly of Italian operatic works, with Rossini's Figaro and Verdi's Rigoletto becoming his signature roles during a long and distinguished career which stretched from 1899 to 1944. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riccardo_Stracciari

Another singer with the Chicago Opera for their early 1918 season in New York, singing Rigoletto. See, e.g., ad on The sun., February 10, 1918, Page 4, columns 6-8. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1918-02-10/ed-...

Mary Garden, 1874-1967. Scottish/American Operatic Soprano and Giorgio Polacco, 1873-1960, Italian opera conductor, aboard the RMS Aquitania on their way to shake up the Chicago Opera scene. from his allmusic.com bio . . .

After that first Chicago season, engagements in France, Cuba, and South America kept the conductor busy until Mary Garden called him in 1921 to become music director and principal conductor of the Chicago Opera, reorganized as the Chicago Civic Opera. Working with the tempestuous Garden, Polacco -- despite several voluble conflicts with his "directa" -- filled the position more than honorably. From the November 14, 1921, production of Samson et Dalila through the time of his retirement for health reasons in 1930, the conductor concentrated on his work in Chicago, conducting just one year (1927) in Boston. During his Chicago tenure, Polacco confirmed his outstanding grasp of a wide-ranging repertory and an unflagging ability to light fires under nearly any cast. He often conducted Garden, notably in her French repertory and in Strauss' Salome. Polacco's final Chicago performance found him leading Garden's Mélisande on February 1, 1930.

For more on Garden see

They arrived on October 21, 1921, s. The New York herald. [volume], October 22, 1921, Page 9 (photo) chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045774/1921-10-22/ed-...