 Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian "buffo" baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I, reveling in comic opera roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer, among others.In 1893, he created the part of Ford in Verdi's last opera, "Falstaff".Notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle (hailed as the most accomplished baritone of his generation), Victor Maurel (the creator of Verdi's Iago, Falstaff and Tonio in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"), Paul Lhérie (the first Posa in the revised, Italian-language version of "Don Carlos"), and Maurice Renaud (a singing actor of the first magnitude).