Zeani (real name, Zahan), Virginia

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Zeani (real name, Zahan), Virginia

Zeani (real name, Zahan), Virginia, Romanian soprano; b. Solovastru, Oct. 21,1928. She studied in Bucharest with Lipkowska and with Pertile in Milan. She made her operatic debut as Violetta in Bologna in 1948; then sang in London (1953), in Rome, at La Scala in Milan (1956), and at Covent Garden in London (1959). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Violetta on Nov. 12, 1966, where she sang for only one season. In 1980 she joined the faculty of the Ind. Univ. School of Music in Bloomington, where she was made a Distinguished Prof, in 1994 and Prof. Emeritus in 1995. She married Nicola Rossi-Lemeni in 1958. Among her finest roles were Lucia, Elvira, Maria di Rohan, Desdemona, Aida, Leonora, and Tosca.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire