Loretta Di Franco is an American operatic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

. She is known for her more than 900 performances at the Metropolitan Opera from 1961-1995.

Career

Originally a member of the Met's opera chorus, she eventually was promoted to singing small comprimario roles beginning with one of the pages in Wagner's '' Tannhäuser'' and the peasant girl in ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'' in 1961. She went on to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1965 which led to her first substantial role, Chloe in '' The Queen of Spades''. She continued to appear annually at the Met for the next 30 years, performing both leading and supporting roles. Some of the parts she performed at the Met included Annina 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 ...

'', both the Aunt and Barena in Janáček's '' Jenůfa'', Barbarina and Marcellina in ''

'', Berta in '' The Barber of Seville'', Countess Ceprano in '' Rigoletto'', the Dew Fairy and the Sandman in '' Hansel and Gretel'', Feklusa in '' Káťa Kabanová'', the First Lady in '' The Magic Flute'', the Flower Seller in Britten's '' Death in Venice'', Frasquita in ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'', Gerhilde in '' Die Walküre'', Giannetta in ''

L'elisir d'amore ''L'elisir d'amore'' (''The Elixir of Love'', ) is a ' (opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's ' (1831). The opera premiere ...

'', Helen in '' Mourning Becomes Electra'', Ines in '' Il trovatore'', Jouvenot in ''

Adriana Lecouvreur ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' () is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play ''Adrienne Lecouvreur'' by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. It was first performed on 6 November 1902 at t ...

'', Kate Pinkerton in ''

Madama Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther ...

'', Laura in '' Luisa Miller'', Lauretta in ''

Gianni Schichi () is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's '' Divine Comedy''. The work is the third and final part of P ...

'', Lisa in '' La sonnambula'', Marianne in '' Der Rosenkavalier'', Marthe in '' Faust'', Musetta in '' La bohème'', Oscar in '' Un ballo in maschera'', Samaritana in ''

Francesca da Rimini Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (died between 1283 and 1286) was a medieval noblewoman of Ravenna, who was murdered by her husband, Giovanni Malatesta, upon his discovery of her affair with his brother, Paolo Malatesta. She was a co ...

'', Woglinde in both '' Das Rheingold'' and '' Götterdämmerung'', Xenia in ''

Boris Godunov Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...

'', Zerlina in ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'', and title role in '' Lucia di Lammermoor''. In 1991 she created the role of the Woman with Child in the world premiere of

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

's '' The Ghosts of Versailles''. This was the role in which she gave her final performance at the Metropolitan in April 1995.

Videography

* Mozart: ''Idomeneo'' (1982), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4234, 2006 * ''

The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala ''The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala'' was a televised concert, lasting more than eight hours, that New York City's Metropolitan Opera staged on 22 October 1983 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of its first performance. A 230-minute s ...

'', Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4538, 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Franco, Loretta 1942 births Living people Winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions American operatic sopranos 21st-century American women