Renata Tebaldi

Renata Ersilia Clotilde Tebaldi (Italian pronunciation: ; 1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period. Among the most beloved opera singers, she has been said to have possessed one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century, a voice that was focused primarily on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires.

Born in Pesaro, Tebaldi was the daughter of a cellist, Teobaldo Tebaldi, and Giuseppina Barbieri, a nurse.:13 Her parents separated before her birth and Tebaldi grew up with her mother in the home of her maternal grandparents in Langhirano.

Stricken with polio at the age of three, Tebaldi became interested in music and was a member of the church choir in Langhirano.:32 Her mother sent her, at the age of thirteen, for piano lessons with Giuseppina Passani in Parma, who took the initiative that Tebaldi study voice with Italo Brancucci, a singing teacher at the conservatory of Parma. She was admitted to the conservatory at the age of 17, taking lessons with Brancucci and Ettore Campogalliani, and later transferred to Liceo musicale Rossini in Pesaro taking lessons with Carmen Melis, and on her suggestion with Giuseppe Pais. She later studied with Beverley Peck Johnson in New York City.

Tebaldi made her stage debut as Elena in Boito's Mefistofele in Rovigo in 1944, and performed in Parma in La bohème, L'amico Fritz and Andrea Chénier. She caused a stir when in 1946 she made her debut as Desdemona alongside Francesco Merli as Otello in Trieste.