Caniglia, Maria

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Caniglia, Maria

Caniglia, Maria, Italian soprano; b. Naples, May 5, 1905; d. Rome, April 16, 1979. She was a pupil of Roche at the Naples Cons. In 1930 she made her operatic debut in Turin as Chrysothemis, and later that year made her first appearance at Milan’s La Scala as Maria in Pizzetti’s Lo Straniero. She continued to sing at La Scala until 1943, and again from 1948 to 1951; also appeared with the company on its visits to London’s Covent Garden (1937, 1939, 1950). On Nov. 21, 1938, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Desdemona, but returned to Europe in 1939. In 1939 she married Pino Donati. Among her best known roles were Tosca, Aida, Alice Ford, the 3 Leonoras, Maria Boccanegra, and Adriana Lecouvreur. She also created the title role in Respighi’s Lucrezia (Milan, Feb. 24, 1937).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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