Favero, Mafalda

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Favero, Mafalda

Favero, Mafalda, Italian soprano; b. Portamaggiore, near Ferrara, Jan. 6, 1903; d. Milan, Sept. 3, 1981. She studied at the Bologna Cons, with Alessandro Vezzani. Under the stage name of Maria Bianchi, she made her operatic debut in 1926 in Cremona as Lola; in 1927 she made her formal operatic debut at Liu in Parma. In 1928 she made her first appearance at Milan’s La Scala as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, and subsequently sang there regularly until 1943, then again from 1945 to 1950. In 1937 and 1939 she appeared at London’s Covent Garden. On Nov. 24, 1938, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Mimi, remaining on its roster for a season. Among her finest roles were Mimi, Adriana Lecouvreur, Manon, and Thai’s.

Bibliography

I. Buscaglia, M. F. nella vita e nell’arte (1946).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire