Lina Pagliughi
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Lina Pagliughi (May 27, 1907 - October 1, 1980) was an Italian-American operatic soprano, based in Italy for many years, one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation.
Lina Pagliughi was born in Brooklyn, New York and started singing while still a child. She was noticed by legendary soprano Luisa Tetrazzini who sensed her potential and encouraged her to study toward an operatic career. At age fifteen, Pagliughi and her family moved back to Italy where she studied with Manilo Bavagnoli in Milan.
Pagliughi made her debut in 1927, at the Teatro Communale in Milan, as Gilda in Rigoletto. Her success was such that she was immediately invited to record the part in a complete recording of the opera, with baritone Luigi Piazza and tenor Tino Folgar. She was invited to sing at all the major opera houses throughout Italy, Turin, Parma, Venice, Florence, Naples, etc. Henceforth considered the successor of Toti dal Monte in the Rossini-Donizetti-Bellini repertory where her sweet and limpid voice and expressive phrasing were shown to best effects. However, apart from a few performances in Monte Carlo and London in the 1930s she hardly sang outside Italy. Pagliughi retired from the stage in 1947 but continued singing on Italian radio RAI until 1956 when she retired for good and turned to teaching.
Pagliughi made many recordings for Cetra such as Lucia di Lammermoor, La fille du régiment, Un giorno di regno, Rigoletto and most notably La sonnambula with Ferruccio Tagliavini and Cesare Siepi.
Lina Pagliughi was married to tenor Primo Montanari (1895-1972). She died in Rome at the age of 73.
[edit] Sources
- Alain Pâris, Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
- Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6
