Born: 11 July 1903, Italy
Died: 6 October 1974
Country most active: Italy, International
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
If ever a singer belonged at the Metropolitan Opera, it was Ebe Stignani. Following her 1925 debut in Naples, Toscanini engaged her to sing at La Scala the following year, where she sang many leading mezzo roles. Stignani was in the United States for performances with the San Francisco opera in 1938 and 1948, and toured the U.S. widely after the Second World War, yet she was never invited to sing at the Met. Stignani was a pushed-down soprano (singing in the range of a mezzo) rather than a true mezzo (G below Middle C to B) and her voice was powerful, as was her acting, especially in the role of Azucena (Il Trovatore)—where she was authoritative in the extreme.