page_title: Antonio Paoli
section_title: Last years
hierarchical_section_title: Antonio Paoli / Last years
caption_attribution_description: English: The former Metropolitan Opera House (39th St) in New York City. A full house, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Josef Hofmann, November 28, 1937.
context_page_description: Antonio Paoli was a Puerto Rican tenor. At the height of his fame, he was known as "The King of Tenors and The Tenor of Kings." He is considered to be the first Puerto Rican to reach international fame in the musical arts. Paoli has been recognized as "one of the most outstanding opera singers of all time," and as one who had "one of the most lyric and powerful voices...superior even to his contemporary rival, Enrico Caruso."
  After spending his childhood in his birth city of Ponce, Paoli moved to Spain where, with the assistance of his well-connected sister Amalia, he obtained a Royal scholarship to take singing lessons in Italy. After singing to standing ovation crowds in both Spain and Italy, Paoli made his grand debut in Paris, France, where he was encouraged to perform on the highest levels of the world stage. Before the end of the 19th century and while Paoli was still in his twenties, he went on a tour of Europe that earned him both popular acclaim, and imperial honors from princes, kings, and emperors.
  Between 1900 and 1914 his career skyrocketed, with performances not only in Europe but also in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.
context_section_description: Even with this busy agenda, Paoli's financial situation remained strained. After living in New York City for almost the entire year of 1927, Paoli decided to return to Puerto Rico to live and work with his sister Amalia, and give voice lessons at the Academia Paoli. Paoli also helped produce Othello at the Municipal Theater in San Juan.
  For the next two decades Paoli's main concern was teaching at the Paoli Academy with Amalia. In 1928, the tenor performed Verdi's Otello in its entirety for the last time in San Juan. This was his last performance on stage. It took place at the San Juan Municipal Theater, known today as the Tapia Theater.
  In 1935, the government of Puerto Rico named the San Juan Municipal Theater in his honor, changing its name to Teatro Paoli. In 1929, his wife Josephine died and a year later he married Adelaida Bonini, from Rimini, Italy. He affectionately called her "Adina". He gave his last singing performance in 1942, while commemorating the one-year anniversary of the death of his sister, Amalia Paoli. The service was conducted at the Chapel of the University of the Sacred Heart (Santurce).
  Paoli died of prostate cancer, in San Juan on 24 August 1946, and was buried in the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery in Carolina, Puerto Rico. On 13 April 2005, Paoli's remains, and those of his (second) wife Adina Bonini (who had died in May 1978) were exhumed and reinterred in Ponce's Román Baldorioty de Castro National Pantheon and buried by the base of his statue. The bust of Paoli at the Pantheon's rotunda is the work of Puerto Rican sculptor Gladys Nieves.
caption: Competitor Caruso who was shareholder at the old New York City Metropolitan Opera House ("The Old Met") made sure Paoli was not allowed to sing at the Met.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "3000", "Image ImageLength": "1819", "Image BitsPerSample": "8", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image ImageDescription": "Landscape", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "1", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:02:16 15:09:04", "Image Artist": "NARA", "Image ExifOffset": "276", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "414", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7768", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2886", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1750"}