Voice: | Soprano |
Nationality: | Italian |
Year of Birth: | 1907 |
Year of Death: | 1984 |
Lina Bruna Rasa (24 September 1907 – October 1984) was an Italian operatic soprano. She was particularly noted for her performances in the verismo repertoire and was a favourite of Pietro Mascagni who considered her the ideal Santuzza. Bruna Rasa created the roles of Atte in Mascagni's Nerone, Cecilia Sagredo in Franco Vittadini's La Sagredo and Saint Clare in Licinio Refice's 1926 oratorio, Trittico Francescano. She also sang the role of Tsaritsa Militrisa in the Italian premiere of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
Lina Bruna Rasa was born at Padua and began her music studies at age 14, studying with Guido Palumbo and Italiano Tabarin in her native Padua, and later in Milan with Manlio Bavagnoli. Her appearance in a 1925 concert at the Teatro La Fenice singing the "Suicidio" aria from La Gioconda created a sensation. By the end of that year, at the age of 18 she made her operatic debut singing the role of Elena in Boito's Mefistofele at the Teatro Politeama in Genoa. She made her debut at the Teatro Regio in Turin in the same role on 21 February 1926 and was engaged by Toscanini to sing Elena for the opening of the 1927 season at La Scala where she made her debut on 16 November 1927. She went on to sing in many notable performances there including the world premieres of Mascagni's Nerone, Franco Vittadini's La Sagredo, the Italian premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan and some of the earliest performances Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, Vincenzo Michetti's La Maddalena, and Respighi's La campana sommersa. In a departure from her usual repertoire, she sang Mathilde for La Scala's celebration of the 100th anniversary of Rossini's William Tell.