Ida Quaiatti

Ida Quaiatti (sometimes Cajatti; 1890 – 1 February 1962) was an Italian lyric soprano known especially for her performances in the work of Giacomo Puccini.

Biography

Born in Split, Quaiatti studied music at the conservatory in Trieste, making her operatic debut in that city as Frasquita in ''Carmen'' in 1907. Two years later she sang the title role in ''Madama Butterfly'' in Ascoli Piceno, and soon thereafter performed in ''La bohème'' at the Teatro Sociale in Bergamo. In 1912 she won plaudits for her performance of Amilcare Ponchielli's ''Lina'' in Cremona. During her career she would go on to sing in such works as ''Otello'' and ''Falstaff'' of Giuseppe Verdi; ''Lohengrin'' and ''Der fliegende Holländer'' of Richard Wagner; ''La Wally'' and ''Loreley'' of Alfredo Catalani; ''Lodoletta'', ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''L'amico Fritz'' of Pietro Mascagni; ''Andrea Chénier'' and ''Fedora'' of Umberto Giordano, ''Mefistofele'' of Arrigo Boito; and ''Manon'' of Jules Massenet. She would eventually perform in most of the major Italian houses. In 1913 she created the role of Mimi in the premiere of ''Mimi Pinson'', the revised version of Ruggiero Leoncavallo's ''La bohème'', in Palermo.

Quaiatti made her Metropolitan Opera debut, under the name "Ida Cajatti", as Musetta in a performance of Puccini's ''La bohème'' on November 19, 1915; conductor Gaetano Bavagnoli bowed with the company on the same evening. Other performers in the cast included Frances Alda, Enrico Caruso, and Antonio Scotti. One reviewer described her voice as "light", and spoke unfavorably of her performance. She went on to sing fifteen performances with the Metropolitan over the course of the season. Most were as Musetta, but several were as Nedda in ''Pagliacci''. A review called her performance in the latter role "hardly satisfactory, as her voice was unsteady and her lapses from the pitch very frequent." Other reviews of her season were more favorable. These performances were her only ones with the company.

During World War I Quaiatti sang mainly in Italy, appearing in Turin, Genoa, Rome, Florence, and Naples, where she performed Tosca opposite the Cavaradossi of Beniamino Gigli at the Teatro San Carlo. In 1917, in Rome, she created the title role in the world premiere of 's ''Gismonda'', appearing alongside Edoardo Garbin and Domenico Viglione Borghese. She went on to sing at Covent Garden in London, where she debuted in 1920 as Puccini's Manon Lescaut, and at theaters in Budapest, Mexico, Peru, and Chile. Puccini, having heard her in a performance of ''La bohème'', requested that she sing Giorgetta in the premiere of the revised '' Il tabarro'' at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in 1919; she essayed the same role at Covent Garden in 1920. She finished her career with performances of Minnie in '' La fanciulla del West'', her last assumption of the role coming at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo in 1932. Quaiatti died in Venice. A biography of the soprano by her daughter was published in 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quaiatti, Ida
1890 births
1962 deaths
Italian operatic sopranos
Musicians from Split, Croatia
20th-century Italian women opera singers
Dalmatian Italians