Marcella Pobbé

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Marcella Pobbé (July 13, 1921, Vicenza - June 17, 2003, Milan) was an Italian operatic soprano who sang a wide range of roles in both the lyric and spinto repertory.

Pobbé first studied in Vicenza with Elena Fava, she later entered the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, where she studied with Rinalda Pavoni. She also studied at the Academy Chigiana in Siena with Giorgio Favaretto. She made her stage debut in Spoleto, as Gounod 's Marguerite, in 1949. The same year, she also appeared at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. She was to appear at these two theatres regularly until 1973.

She made her debut at the Rome Opera in 1954, in the title role of Gluck 's Iphigénie en Tauride, and in 1955 at La Scala as Bathseba in Darius Milhaud 's David. She appeared at the Baths of Caracalla in 1957, as Mathilde in Guglielmo Tell, and in 1959 as Elsa in Lohengrin. She also appeared at most major opera houses in Italy, Venice, Parma, Bologna, Florence, Mantua, Palermo, etc.

On the international scene, she made guest appearances at the Monte Carlo Opera, Zurich Opera, Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Liceo in Barcelona. In North America, she sang at the Philadelphia Opera and in 1958, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for a few performances of Marguerite and Mimi.

Her repertory also included; Agathe, Eva, Countess Almaviva, Micaela, Leonora, Maria, Amelia, Desdemona, Maddalena, Tosca, Adriana, Francesca, etc. She can be heard on record as Margherita in Boito 's Mefistofele, opposite Ferruccio Tagliavini and Giulio Neri.

Pobbé went on performing until the late 1970s, and then became a music critic for Vicenza Gazzettino. In 2000, she published a serie of interviews she had made with conductors.