An Ignorant Tenor

The tenor Campanini once made a lifelong enemy with nothing more than a label on a suitcase.

His rival, Fancelli, could barely read or write, but he managed to puzzle out the words “Primo Tenore Assoluto” on Campanini’s baggage. The last word—*assoluto*, “absolute” or “unrivaled”—set him off. In Fancelli’s mind, that title belonged to him and him alone.

Fancelli’s literacy problems were notorious. Before he became a singer he had worked as a baggage porter in Leghorn (Livorno). Even at the height of his career, he hired a member of the opera chorus to write the autographs he handed to admirers.

Once the Liverpool Philharmonic Society asked him to sign their autograph album. His usual scribe wasn’t there, so Fancelli attempted it himself. He managed the name—dropping an “l” and a “c”—and then tried to add his beloved title. He got as far as writing an “a” and three “s”s… and then spilled a giant blot of ink that erased part of it.

The signature remains a perfect snapshot of the man:
“Faneli Primo Tenor e Ass ”