Opera Singer. A tenor, he is remembered as his generation's leading comprimario, one of opera's character performers called upon to take the stage virtually every night singing a wide range of roles in a multiplicity of languages. Though little is recorded of his early days, it is known that he rained in the Northern Italian city of his birth, and made his January 1900 professional bow as a Messenger in Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida"; over the next eight years he refined his craft in such major venues as La Scala Milano, Teatro San Carlo, Naples, and Covent Garden, London, prior to his November 16, 1908 debut in "Aida" at New York's Metropolitan Opera. During his three decades with the company, Mr. Bada was to log 2,170 performances of more than 100 parts in 94 operas; he was to create roles in a number of the Metropolitan's world premieres including Trin in Giacomo Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" on December 10, 1910 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, Despereaux of Umberto Giordano's flop "Madame Sans Gene" on November 15, 1915, again with Toscanini on the podium, and Achille from Deems Taylor's "Peter Ibbetson" on February 7, 1931 with Edward Johnson, Lucrezia Bori, and Lawrence Tibbett in the leads. On December 14, 1918 Bada sang in the first performances of two of the three one act pieces that comprise Puccini's "Il trittico", appearing as Gherardino in the comic masterpiece "Gianni Schicchi" with Giuseppe de Luca in the title role and as Tinca in the tragic "Il Tabarro". Appearing in San Francisco in 1927 and 1928, he bowed as Remendado in Bizet's "Carmen", with his other characters including Spoletta from Puccini's "Tosca", Pang in the same composer's "Turandot", and Tybalt of Charles Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette"; after giving his final Metropolitan performance on April 9, 1938 he retired to his home city where he died following a short illness. At his death, Mr. Bada held the record for the most Metropolitan appearances, though his total has since been eclipsed by tenor Charles Anthony (2,928) and by baritone George Cehanovsky (2,394). He can be heard on a number of studio recordings including some featuring the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso.