Any "nature vs. nurture" debate about whether Italians have singing in their blood should include Bruno Caproni. Now in his 40s, Caproni has established himself as one of the world's leading Rigolettos and a baritone who frequently appears at Covent Garden, La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. His voice is described as being a beautiful, Italian bel canto. But things get confusing when you hear him speak.

Baritone Bruno Caproni, in costume as Rigoletto for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, re-creates the role for Pittsburgh Opera. Pittsburgh Opera 'Rigoletto' Richard Buckley, conductor; Bruno Caproni, Laura Claycomb and Frank Lopardo. Where: Benedum Center, Downtown. When: 8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sept. 27; 8 p.m. Sept. 30; and 2 p.m. Oct. 2. Tickets: $16-$125; 412-456-6666.

"A gude d'rector kin bring something out -- there's always somthin' t' find if, ye know what ah mean," Caproni says in a thick Ulster accent.

Yes, Caproni is Irish. British, technically. He was born in Northern Ireland. He is the grandson of Italian immigrants who came from a small town just north of Lucca, called Barga. "At the turn of the 1900s, when there was a lot of immigration from that area. Many went to America," he says, still in that heavy brogue. "My grandfather only made it to Ireland. He didn't think he would get back to Italy enough if he went to America."

Hence you have the interesting case of the Irishman with the Italian genes, and operatic ones at that.

Caproni's grandparents opened a ballroom in Northern Ireland that booked top jazz bands from England and Ireland in the 1930s through the '50s. Along with other immigrant Italians opening cafes and ice cream shops, they helped to create a subculture on the Isle, one in which Caproni grew up constantly in touch with his other homeland.

Opera was always a huge part of that displaced heritage, but it was Caproni who was the first of his family to pursue singing as a vocation. In college in Manchester, England, Caproni briefly tired of Italian culture -- his friends would want to go out for Italian food, "But for me it was not 'eating out,' " he says, laughing. "I wanted to go get Indian or something!"

As his career blossomed, Caproni has became increasingly obsessed with his heritage. It ultimately has led him back to the house in Barga, still standing today, that his grandparents left nearly a century ago.

"I often say I am working my way back to Italy," Caproni says from Cologne, Germany. "Every time I go back to Barga, I never cease to think about how my family walked the streets." Eventually, he hopes to purchase the Caproni ancestral home and retire there. "I have just one cousin I am waiting for the OK from, and I will renovate it and retire. It has been used as a holiday home and is in a bit of a sorry state at the moment."

Some in his family think Caproni should just raze the old place and build anew. "But that defeats the purpose," he says. "The house is full of memories, I never feel cold or alone there. [I feel] I belong there."

Lately, he has taken up genealogy as a hobby. "On the Caproni side I have been able to trace back to 1680, right around when the house was built." He has discovered distant relatives around the world, many of whom come to hear him sing when he is nearby.

"It has enabled me to make contact with so many family members I didn't know," says Caproni. "They all were interested -- not as fanatical as I -- in their Italian background. But it was through my perseverance and luck that we actually connected." Some relatives living in Albany plan on traveling to see Caproni's debut at the Pittsburgh Opera in its traditional production of "Rigoletto."

"The whole role is basically a terrible dichotomy, really," Caproni says of Verdi's tragic opera. "On the one hand, there is this guy who is so nasty and so evil to the other members of the court in Mantua (he has to be to keep his job to entertain the Duke). But on the other hand is the tender, soft side -- the father." It is this latter side that Caproni always looks to bring out in the character.

"[That's] the real him," he says. "The mean jester is an act Rigoletto has assumed to adjust to this life because of his deformity. It is his power so he is not an outcast. One sees that viciousness and fight to survive, and one sees that father who fights. One has to have sympathy for him, unless you have been on the receiving end of his barbs."

It's a positive and warm envisioning of the role that fits with Caproni's vocal timbre and singing style. "He has the kind of Verdi sound, smoother and sweeter, that I like," says the Opera's artistic director Christopher Hahn, who didn't want to cast Rigoletto as the typical "dry, older, harsher baritone."

"There are the big dramatic heldenbaritones, and there are the Italian style baritones, who can bring out the beauty," says Caproni. "It needs a beautiful voice. Rigoletto has always been known as an older person, first because he is a father and [second] because the role is so heavy. But it is pure bel canto," he says.

That fits Caproni fine, even if he sings it more than he speaks it.