Delia Rigal is the stage name of Delia Dominga Mastrarrigo (October 6, 1920 - May 8, 2013), an Argentine soprano who performed at the
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acousti ...
in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
in the period 1943-1955,
La Scala
La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
in New York, where she sang for seven consecutive seasons, beginning with
Rudolf Bing's debut as director in 1950.
Biography
A dramatic soprano spinto and a disciple of Rosalina Crocco, she debuted on June 20, 1942 at the Teatro Colón, at age 21. Her main roles were Violetta in ''
La Traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
'', Desdemona in ''
Otello
''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887.
Th ...
'' and Elizabeth in ''
Don Carlo''.
At the Teatro Colón she had already performed in 1941 in a small role in Lohengrin, continuing with Diana in Iphigenie that same season. The following year she was part of the second cast of ''La Traviata'' and ''Simon Boccanegra'' and in 1944 she created the Empress Augusta in Héctor Panizza's opera ''Byzantium'', who also premiered Aurora in 1945. Between 1945 and 1955 it was Armida, Rezia, Manon Lescaut, Iphigénie in Tauride, Aida, Leonora, Alcestes, Countess Almaviva, Thais, Tosca, Maddalena and Fiora. She sang at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Opéra in Paris, Havana, the Municipal Theater of Chile, the Teatro Solís in Uruguay.
Elizabeth in ''Don Carlo'' was the role of her debut in the
Metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
in New York in 1950 and with whom she said goodbye in April 1957. In that house (and on tours with the company) she sang more than 100 performances such as Nedda, Tosca, Aida, Donna Elvira, Condesa Almaviva , Violetta and Leonora. She emigrated for political reasons in 1955, after being displaced from the Colón Theater in September of that year, settling in Long Island, United States.
In 1989 she received the
Konex Platinum Award, an important Argentine cultural award.
External links
Metropolitan files
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigal, Delia
1920 births
2013 deaths
Argentine operatic sopranos
Singers from Buenos Aires
Argentine emigrants to the United States
20th-century Argentine women opera singers