Lina Pagliughi

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.

Pagliughi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian parents 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 and 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 in Italy; Turin, Parma, Venice, Florence, Naples, etc. Henceforth considered the successor of Toti dal Monte in the Rossini-Donizetti-Bellini repertory in which 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 ever 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.

ources

* "Dictionnaire des interprètes", Alain Pâris, (Edition Robert Laffont, 1989). ISBN 2-221-06660-X
* "Guide de l’opéra", Roland Mancini & Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6