The bass Franco Calabrese was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1923. He sang widely throughout Italy before singing for a number of seasons at La Scala, Milan, during the 1950s and 1960s. His rôles in this house included the Doctor in Pelléas et Mélisande, Geronio in Il Turco in Italia, Count Robinson in Il matrimonio segreto, Geronte in Manon Lescaut, Marchese di Calatrava in La forza del destino, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro. He sang (and later recorded) Almaviva in the 1955 production of Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne. He also recorded extensively as a comprimario with both La Scala and Rome forces for a number of labels.