His soccer team had just lost a big game and had repaired to a bar when Bonaldo Giaiotti, a 20-year-old furniture design apprentice, tried to clear the melancholy in the air by imitating a Russian operatic bass he had heard on the radio. A member of the chorus from the local opera, near Udine, in northeastern Italy, was there and took note.

He suggested that Mr. Giaiotti sing for the chorus’s director, who, recognizing his talent, not only took him on but also started giving him lessons. Soon Mr. Giaiotti quit his furniture job and began a rapid rise to the international opera stage.