Tebaldi, Renata


Tebaldi, Renata

(rānä`tä tābäl`dē), 1922–2004, Italian lyric soprano. She received early musical training at home and at the Boito Conservatory, Parma. In 1944 she made her professional debut and in 1946 sang at the reopening of La Scala in Milan. She was one of the most acclaimed members of the Metropolitan Opera company from 1955 to 1973, and retired from singing in 1976. Legendary for her superb musicianship and lustrously beautiful voice, Tebaldi sang and recorded in many countries and was particularly admired for her interpretations of the title roles in Tosca, Aïda, and Madama Butterfly.

Bibliography

See biographies by V. I. Seroff (1970), K. Harris (1975), and C. Casanova (1995).

Tebaldi, Renata

 

Born Feb. 2, 1922, in Pesaro. Italian lyric soprano.

Tebaldi, a student of C. Melis, made her operatic debut in 1944 in Rovigo. In 1946 she became a soloist at La Scala. In 1950 she began singing at theaters all over the world, including Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera. Tebaldi is distinguished by her vocal mastery. In her vast repertoire, her parts in the operas of Verdi and Puccini stand out: Violetta, Leonora, Aída, Desdemona, and Alice in Verdi’s La Traviata, La Forza del Destino, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff and the title roles of Puccini’s Tosca and Madame Butterfly, as well as the part of Mimi in La Boheme. Tebaldi is also noted for the title role in Bellini’s Norma and for the part of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She performed on tour in the USSR in 1975.

REFERENCE

Timokhin, B. Vydaiushchiesia ital’ianskie pevtsy: Ocherki. Moscow, 1962. Pages 152–61.