User:Squillovoce/Rita Orlandi-Malaspina

Rita Orlandi-Malaspina is Italian opera soprano who had a major international career from the 1960s through the 1980s.

She was a student of the famous Carmen Melis in Milan and made her stage debut 1963 at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan as Giovanna in Verdi's "Giovanna d'Arco". Her career took a very rapid development. She appeared in all Italian theaters of rank and, above all their successes at La Scala, where she was often heard. She continued to sing at the opera in Rome, at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Massimo Palermo, Turin, Bologna, Trieste, at the Arena di Verona Festival (1968–69, 1971–72) and in the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.

Abroad, Orlandi-Malaspina was a guest at Covent Garden Opera London, at the State Operas of Munich and Hamburg, at the Grand Opéra Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Wiesbaden, at the Liceu in Barcelona, at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, at the Vienna State Opera, at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Opera of Montreal and Philadelphia. In 1968–69, there was a successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York.

The artist married the bass Massimiliano Malaspina, who had as a major international opera career. She has since appeared under the name Rita Orlandi Malaspina. Her extensive stage repertoire included roles such as highlights of Tosca, the title character in Puccini's "Suor Angelica", Elsa in "Lohengrin", the Maddalena in "Andrea Chénier" by Giordano, but it was above all a great interpreter of Verdi (Aida, Odabella in "Attila", Elisabetta in "Don Carlos", Leonora in "Il Trovatore", Elvira in "Ernani, "Luisa Miller", Amelia in "Un ballo in maschera", Abigail in "Nabucco", Desdemona in "Otello", Elena in "I Vespri Siciliani", Lucrezia Contarini in "I due Foscari"). Even as a concert soprano, she was very successful.