Ligabue, Ilva
Ligabue, Ilva
Ligabue, Ilva, Italian soprano; b. Reggio Emilia, May 23, 1932; d. Palermo, Aug. 19,1998. She studied at the Milan Cons, and at the opera school of Milan’s La Scala, where she made her operatic debut as Marina in Wolf-Ferrari’s I quattro Rusteghi in 1953. She subsequently sang in other Italian and German music centers. From 1958 to 1961 she appeared at the Glyndebourne Festivals, where she was heard as Alice Ford, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, and Anna Bolena. In 1961 she made her U.S. debut as Boito’s Margherita. In 1963 she sang with the American Opera Soc. in N.Y., at the Vienna State Opera, and at London’s Covent Garden, returning to the latter in 1974. Her guest engagements took her to many other U.S. and European music centers.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire