Romano Ciaroff-Ciarini (1878-1964) was a lyric tenor whose career took him to many European opera stages during the first quarter of the 20th century. Despite his Italianate sounding stage name, he was born Roman Isidorovich Charov in Mikolaiv, Ukraine. He graduated with a degree in engineering, but soon turned his attentions to singing in his early 20s and began vocal studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. While there, the tenor worked with renowned pedagogue Stanislav Ivanovich Gabel (1849-1924). Still calling himself Roman Charov, he made his debut at 26 in the title role of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchey the Deathless. Although the March 1905 performance was a student production, it gave the young man the exposure needed to launch an opera career.

In the initial phases of Charov’s stage career, he sang in the smaller theaters of St. Petersburg, Odessa and Kiev and also reportedly worked as an understudy at Moscow’s Bolshoi. In later years, Charov enjoyed relating the tale of an early engagement, covering Faust for a celebrated but aging Italian tenor. The Italian (whose name is lost to history) had difficulty with the top C in the aria “Salut, demeure”. Concerned that he might not reach the note in performance, he asked that Charov be placed on stage out of the audience’s view. As the top C approached, the old Italian signaled Charov, who took the phrase with ease. The audience, believing that the Italian had just issued forth with a perfect C, erupted in applause at their idol’s accomplishment!

Engagements in Kharkov and Kazan followed and in 1909 Charov debuted in both Ekaterinburg and Perm. In 1911 he made his debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg as Lensky in Yevgeny Onegin and his international career began in September of that same year at the Kursaal in Montreux. His debut role was Rodolfo in La Bohème, followed by Fernando in La Favorita and Alfredo in La Traviata. In December, he made his Italian debut as des Grieux in Manon at Genoa’s Politeama Genovese. Important debuts at Rome’s Costanzi and Barcelona’s Liceo took place in 1912, and the tenor, now billed as Romano Ciaroff-Ciarini, found that he was much in demand throughout Europe.

Ciaroff-Ciarini returned to his homeland in early 1914 for a pair of concerts in Mikolaiv and Kherson and was to have made his North American debut in late that same year. Accepting a contract to sing Roméo and Werther with the National Grand Opera Company, the tenor eagerly awaited the upcoming season in Southern California. The season was abruptly cancelled, however, when the company’s director, Mario Lambardi, was sued by choristers and arrested for violating California labor laws. Destitute and disgraced, the aged impresario died of a stroke a short time later. Upon learning of the tragedy, Lambardi’s wife, former ballerina Ida Bonora, committed suicide. Ciaroff-Ciarini, who had been heralded as “the greatest tenor in this country, except Caruso” (even though he had never sung in America!), found himself at liberty for several months, until a series of concerts in Genoa and Pegli that fall.

The tenor spent the war years mainly in Italy’s provincial theaters, appearing in Verona, Milan, Savona, San Remo, Naples, Bari, Florence and Bologna, with the occasional visit to Spain and Egypt. His career continued well into the 1920s, although the theaters were not as prestigious as they had been. There were a pair of recitals at London’s Steinway Hall as part of the budget priced Janssen Subscription Concerts in May and June 1924 as well as a radio broadcast from Queen’s Hall. Of the latter, Percy A. Scholes less than glowingly wrote, “Mr. Romano Ciaroff, Russian tenor, sang so loudly that no apparatus seemed necessary to transmit his voice, and did so with persistent tremolo, some sobs, one or two really wonderful long breaths, and not an atom of rhythmic feeling.”

Ciaroff-Ciarini moved to Paris in 1926 and sang with Opéra Russe à Paris the following season. By the early 1930s he had returned to Russia, where he began teaching at Moscow’s State Institute of Theater Arts in 1934. During WWII he was part of the Jewish evacuation to Tajikstan, where he was honored as a National Artist. In 1946, the 68 year old tenor sang his final concert in Leningrad, then in settled in Odessa. Ciaroff-Ciarini spent his remaining years teaching at the Conservatory there and died in 1964 at the age of 86.

Romano Ciaroff-Ciarini’s repertoire included over 30 roles from such works as Rigoletto, Falstaff, Madama Butterfly, Mignon, Lakmé, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, The Snow Maiden, Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Pasquale, Isabeau and the world premiere of Allen’s Milda (Venice, 1913). His recordings, made almost exclusively for Fonotipia, reveal a bright, Italianate tone and very nuanced singing. Here, Ciaroff-Ciarini sings “Spirto gentil” from Donizetti’s La Favorita. This recording (with corrected speed) was made in Milan for Fonotipia on May 14, 1917.

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