 Born in Parma, Campanini studied at the Parma Conservatory before making his operatic debut as Manrico in "Il trovatore", in 1869, in Odessa.Further study with Francesco Lamperti in Milan followed, and in 1871 he returned to the stage in Bologna, scoring his first major success in the Italian premiere of "Lohengrin".Early in his 1872 Drury Lane season J. H. Mapleson, the London opera impresario, recruited Campanini from Rome, where he was in competition with the agents of Frederick Gye, the Covent Garden theatre impresario.