Caterina Mancini

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Caterina Mancini,1958

Caterina Mancini (10 November 1924 – 21 January 2011) was an Italian

dramatic coloratura soprano
, primarily active in Italy in the 1950s.

Mancini was born at

I Lombardi
, in Florence. In 1950, she appeared in Bologna and Venice, in Norma, and made her debut at La Scala in Milan, in Lucrezia Borgia, in 1951.

The same year, she sang in many

Aïda
.

She sang mostly in Italy, notably as Anaide in Mosè in Egitto in Florence (1955), and as Amelia in

Elisabetta, Gioconda, Santuzza, Tosca
.

Mancini was a dramatic coloratura soprano, possessing a large and powerful, yet surprisingly flexible voice, which made her an excellent exponent of early Verdi operas. Health problems in the early 1960s led her to withdraw little by little from the stage. In fact, on 30 November 1963 she sang the contralto part in a performance of the oratorio Messiah, for the Dallas Opera. The event was dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, who had been slain in that city a few days earlier. The other soloists included Jon Vickers and Norman Treigle, and it was conducted by Nicola Rescigno. It was billed as her "first appearance as a contralto and in an English work."

Her career was in many ways similar to that of Anita Cerquetti; both had short but brilliant careers, and both were more or less eclipsed by Maria Callas, and nowadays almost forgotten.

Selected recordings

Sources
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