Mariella Adani

Mariella Adani (born December 17, 1934) is an Italian classical soprano who had an active career in operas, concerts, and recitals from the 1950s through the 1980s. She has sung under the musical direction of Vittorio Gui, Carlo Maria Giulini, Nino Sanzogno, Oliviero De Fabritiis, and Peter Maag and under the directors Sandro Bolchi, Franco Zeffirelli Luchino Visconti, and Walter Felsenstein. A light lyric soprano, she has particularly excelled in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioachino Rossini. She has also been admired for her performances in Baroque opera. Retired from the stage, she now devotes her time to teaching singing.

Adani was born in Palanzano. She studied voice at the Parma Conservatory with Ettore Campogalliani and at the L'Accademia di La Scala with Giulio Confalonieri. In 1954 she made her professional opera debut at La Scala as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as the Countess, Irmgard Seefried as Susanna, Mario Petri as the Count, and Rolando Panerai as Figaro. She returned frequently to that house through 1962, singing such roles as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Amore in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Nannetta in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff, Lucieta in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's I quatro rusteghi, and Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. She also portrayed the title role in the Italian premiere of Leoš Janáčeks' The Cunning Little Vixen at La Scala in 1958.