Blessed with an extraordinary voice and "discovered" by Caruso, the future of Cortis could have been bright. After an extensive tour throughout Argentina and South America with Caruso, and when offered to go to New York with Caruso, Cortis surprisingly turned the offer down, returning to Spain for his first daughter's birth. Hence, Cortis, epitaphed "il Caruso Espagnol," or "il Piccolo Caruso," never appeared at the Met. Did he miss out on a more significant career?

Antonio Cortis (née Antonio Tomas Monton Corts) was born on board a ship sailing between Algiers and Alicante, 12th August 1891. His father had died a week previously and the mother brought her two sons to Valencia, then later on to Madrid, where both boys received musical education; the brother in clarinet and Antonio entered the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid at the age of eight where he received education in composition, theory and violin. He also sung in a choir, but his main focus at the time was that of a professional career as an orchestral violinist and composer.

In 1909 the family settled down in Barcelona, where Cortis entered the Municipal Conservatory and received vocal tuition from the maestri Nicolau and Daniel. The following year he was engaged as member of Gran Teatro del Liceu's choir, where he made his debut in Spontini's La Vestale. He was initially allotted only comprimario tenor roles, making his debut as Cassio in Otello (1912), until his debut as first tenor came in Tosca at the Liceu in 1916.

In 1917 he was engaged for a tour in South America as Arlecchino in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. The first tenor, Canio, was no other than Enrico Caruso, who became very fond of the young tenor and allegedly invited him to join him in New York. Cortis, having married a year earlier and expecting a daughter, declined the offer and returned to Spain for his daughter's birth.

Back in Spain Cortis prepared for his Italian departure with great successes at the Teatro Real in Madrid and made his first recording sessions with Gramofono. 1919 Cortis departed with his family to Italy where he soon was contracted by the theatres of Napoli and Bari. After his Canio in Napoli he was engaged by the Teatro Costanzi of Roma in 1920 for a three year period. A performance of Aida in Milano led him to Habana, Cuba (and yet another South American tour) after having been approached by two recruiting agents for the Teatro Nacional de Habana after the performance. Cortis' reputation was spreading and he was called to Berlin for a new recording session for Parlophone in 1923.

Cortis' career took an essential turn with his North American debut in Chicago on November 3rd 1924 and for the next consecutive eight years he was to be closely connected with the Civic Opera of Chicago. Cortis himself considered this the peak of his career, with occasional successes also in San Francisco (1925-26), La Scala (1930-31) and Covent Garden (1931), where he sang opposite Rosa Ponselle in Turandot and Fedora, apart from out-of-season appearances in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Santiago de Chile, Verona, Torino, Monte Carlo and on home turf in Barcelona (1926), where he sang Radames. During his golden epoch with the Chicago Opera he was also contracted for several recording sessions with Victor in the US and La Voce del Padrone in Italy; in 1925 and 1927 he recorded arias in Camden, New Jersey, for Victor and 1929 and 1931 for La Voce del Padrone in Milano.

The eight year long triumph ended with the American recession in 1932, when all the American opera houses were forced to cut salaries, Chicago included, and Cortis never renewed his contract. He went back to Spain and had a short period of success in his native country and Italy until 1935 when the tension around the outburst of the Spanish Civil War restricted his movements severely. The onset of the 2nd World War shortly after the Civil War in 1939 prevented Cortis further from continuing his career and along with economic recession affecting the theatres of Europe, Cortis remained within Spain for the rest of his professional career, which ended in Zaragoza in 1950 as Cavaradossi in Tosca, and with occasional appearances in Portugal.

After having settled in Valencia for good, Cortis opened a singing academy in Valencia in 1940, and intended to dedicate himself to vocal tuition after his retirement, cut short, however, by his ill-health and deteriorating condition and eventual death in Valencia on 2nd April 1952.

During his prime he was referred to as "il Caruso Espagnol" or "il Piccolo Caruso," partly for his similarity to Caruso in emission and style, and partly for his own claim that Caruso had been his only teacher. He was a timid man with a certain stage fright and relentlessness towards pushing himself into the limelight, which might have prevented him from having gone further. His voice was that of a lyrico spinto with an eveness of tone and refinement that equally was suited for the lighter tenor repertory, although his approach to bel canto might not have been all that successful.