 He then left for Italy to further his studies, and was a pupil of Riccardo Stracciari, Apollo Granforte and Carlo Tagliabue.The bass made his debut at La Scala in 1947, as the King of Clubs in "The Love for Three Oranges", directed by Giorgio Strehler.He continued to appear at that theatre until 1973, in "Boris Godunov" (as Varlaam), "Prince Igor", "The Rake's Progress" (as Trulove in the world premiere, at the Teatro La Fenice, opposite Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1951), two works of Pizetti, "Eugene Onegin" (as Prince Gremin, with Ettore Bastianini, Renata Tebaldi, and Giuseppe di Stefano), "Guillaume Tell" (as Walter Furst), "Aida" (as Ramfis, directed by Franco Zeffirelli), "Faust" (with Mirella Freni), "Nabucco" (opposite Elena Souliotis), "Rigoletto" (as Sparafucile, with Piero Cappuccilli, staged by Margherita Wallmann), "Maria Stuarda" (with Montserrat Caballé and Shirley Verrett), "Linda di Chamounix" (with Alfredo Kraus and Renato Bruson), and a concert of Shostakovich's Symphony No.