Celestina Casapietra

Celestina Casapietra (born 23 August 1938) is an Italian operatic soprano who was a member of the Berlin State Opera for decades. She made an international career, and recorded several operas and concerts.

Born in Genoa, Casapietra made her debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan in 1963.

Casapietra was discovered by Otmar Suitner who won her for the Berlin State Opera from 1965. She married the conductor Herbert Kegel; they had a son, Björn Casapietra  who was born in Genoa and has an Italian passport. Casapietra and Kegel were a glamour couple of the GDR in the 1960s.

In Berlin, she performed roles such as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Agathe in Weber's Der Freischütz, Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Maddalena in Giordano's André Chenier. In 1971, she appeared in the title role of Massenet's Manon, alongside Peter Schreier as Des Grieux, staged by Horst Bonnet  and conducted by Arthur Apelt. Her contract was cancelled in 1993, leading to a long legal case which she won.

She appeared as a guest at La Fenice in Venice, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Hamburg State Opera and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. At the Salzburg Festival, she appeared in Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo from 1969 to 1971.

She also appeared in concerts, recording Bach's Mass in B minor conducted by her husband in 1975, with the Leipzig radio choir and orchestra, Renate Frank-Reinecke, Věra Soukupová, Eberhard Büchner and Siegfried Vogel.