Renata Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera. Often considered among the great opera singers of the 20th century, she focused primarily on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires. Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini called her voice "la voce d'angelo" ("the voice of an angel"), and La Scala music director Riccardo Muti called her "one of the greatest performers with one of the most extraordinary voices in the field of opera."

Born in Pesaro, Tebaldi was the daughter of cellist Teobaldo Tebaldi and Giuseppina Barbieri, a nurse.  Her parents separated before her birth and Tebaldi grew up with her mother in her maternal grandparents' home in Langhirano.

Stricken with polio at the age of three, Tebaldi became interested in music and sang with the church choir in Langhirano.  Her mother sent her, at age 13, for piano lessons with Giuseppina Passani in Parma, who took the initiative that Tebaldi study voice with Italo Brancucci at the conservatory of Parma. She was admitted to the conservatory at 17, where she studied with Brancucci and Ettore Campogalliani. She later transferred to Liceo musicale Rossini in Pesaro, taking lessons with Carmen Melis, and on her suggestion with Giuseppe Pais. She then studied with Beverley Peck Johnson in New York City.