The son of Enrico Cappelli, a popular mid-nineteenth-century theater actor from Bologna, he formed a theater company with Eleuterio Rodolfi in 1905. In 1907 he had the direction of the Teatro Stabile di Roma with Ferruccio Garavaglia. He later moved on to the companies of Italia Vitaliani, Emma Gramatica, again with Garavaglia, and to that of Ugo Farulli.