Ettore Verna

Ettore Verna (April 8, 1896 – August 3, 1962) was an Italian-born American operatic baritone, vocal coach, voice teacher, talent agent and opera director. Initially raised in the Abruzzi region of Italy, Verna immigrated with his family to the United States in 1911 at the age of fifteen. A resident of Philadelphia, he began his professional life as a tailor in that city until he was drafted into the United States Army during World War I. While enlisted, the army used him as a singer in patriotic concerts sponsored by the government. After the war, he returned to Philadelphia where he ultimately began a professional opera career with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company in 1925. He had an active career as a leading baritone in operas in the United States and in Europe over the next decade.

After 1935 Verna's career shifted towards work as a voice teacher in New York City. The husband of soprano Mary Curtis Verna, he was the vocal coach to several principal singers at the Metropolitan Opera. He also served briefly as director of the Empire Opera Company in 1939 and artistic director of the Grand Opera Spring Festival in Detroit in the 1950s. As a talent agent he was responsible for organizing the first appearances in the United States of sopranos Maria Callas and Anna Maria Alberghetti. He died at the age of 66 in 1962.