Lina Pagliughi

Lina Pagliughi (born May 27, 1907 in Brooklyn ; † October 2, 1980 in Gatteo ) was an American-Italian opera singer, in her day one of the leading lyric coloratura sopranos .

Life

Pagliughi was the daughter of Italian immigrants and sang as a child. When she was a year and a half, she moved to San Francisco with her parents . The famous soprano Luisa Tetrazzini recognized her talent and took care of her education. She studied piano at the San Francisco Conservatory. At the age of 15 she moved with her parents to Italy where she studied with Manlio Bavagnoli in Milan . In 1927 she made her debut at the Teatro Communale in Milan with Gilda from Rigoletto , with whom she had such success that she received a recording contract (with the baritone Luigi Piazza and tenor Tino Folgar for La Voce del Padro , another recording was made in 1954 with Giuseppe Taddei and Ferruccio Tagliavini ). In 1929 she tours Australia and in 1930/1 she sings in the Netherlands. After her debut at La Scala in 1930 (also with Gilda), she sang at all the major Italian houses and was seen as the successor to Toti dal Monte in the bel canto category. She seldom sang outside Italy later (a few appearances in Monte Carlo and London in the 1930s). In 1947 she withdrew from the opera stage (Lucia di Lammermoor's farewell performance at La Scala with Beniamino Gigli ), but still sang in RAI radio recordings . From 1956 she was only a teacher in Milan, e.g. for Birgit Nordin . She was married to the tenor Primo Montanari (1895–1972).

There are many recordings for Cetra (e.g. Lucia di Lammermoor , The Regiment Daughter , Rigoletto , La sonnambula ).

literature

• Alain Paris Lexicon of Classical Music Performers in the 20th Century , dtv

Web links

• Lina Pagliughi at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon