Anselmo Colzani, who died Sunday at 87, was a stalwart of the Metropolitan Opera who gave 272 performances, many of them in leading baritone roles including Falstaff, Scarpia in “Tosca,” and Jack Rance, the vengeful sheriff in “La Fanciulla del West.”

Colzani had his debut at the Met as Simon Boccanegra in Verdi’s opera of the same name on April 7, 1960, under difficult circumstances. Less than a month earlier, the great Met baritone Leonard Warren had dropped dead mid-performance as Don Carlo in another Verdi opera, “La Forza del Destino.” The dramatic death, which rather spoiled Renata Tebaldi’s much-heralded return to the Met (and also occasioned the only Pulitzer Prize ever awarded for an obituary) came just as Warren had completed singing an aria that begins, “Urna fatale del mio destino” (“Fatal urn of my destiny”).

By the time he was selected as Warren’s replacement, Colzani had just 15 days to learn the role.

“I still wonder how I did it,” he told Opera News in 1961.

According to Louis Biancolli, writing in the World-Telegram and Sun, “Mr. Colzani rose splendidly to the demands of the music and the drama. Singing and acting combined to compelling purpose. This became a great impersonation.”

Colzani’s quick study was no fluke; by the following January, he had appeared in leading roles in four more Metropolitan productions. He remained an important part of the New York opera scene for the next 17 seasons.

Colzani was brought up in the suburbs of Bologna by parents who were, he said, “fine amateur singers. An early infatuation with opera was nearly extinguished,” he said, when “one of my girl friends dropped water on my head when I sang under her window. This sort of thing is discouraging.” After serving in the Italian army during World War II, he began studying voice in earnest. He had a day job at Underwood Typewriters.

He began his professional career singing in a regional opera company, and had his first leading role in “Rigoletto,” which he said he learned in a month. Colzani made his La Scala debut in 1953 as Alfio in “Cavalleria Rusticana,” and later appeared in opera houses throughout Europe. He made his American debut in 1956 in the San Francisco Opera’s “Il Trovatore.”

Among Colzani’s notable performances was in the role of Sir John Falstaff, in the Met 1964 production, with direction and scenery by Franco Zeffirelli and music direction by Leonard Bernstein. The Chicago Tribune praised Colzani’s per formance as “excellent, earthy.”

Colzani’s last role at the Met was as Michonnet in “Adriana Lecouvreur” in 1978, when he sang with Jose Carreras.

Colzani’s first wife died young, leaving him with two small daughters to raise. He married a second time, and his wife, Ada, survives him, as do his