Margherita Carosio

Margherita Carosio (7 June 1908 – 10 January 2005) was a leading Italian operatic coloratura soprano and actress, starring in Spanish films during the 1930s.

Her voice is preserved in many Parlophone and Ultraphon recordings made before World War II, as well as a His Master's Voice series made in London from the 1940s. She was still singing leading roles in her early sixties and was considered one of the leading bel canto sopranos of her day. She was born and died in Genoa.

Carosio is most often remembered today as the singer whose indisposition in January 1949 led to Maria Callas learning and singing the role of Elvira in Bellini's I puritani in five days while she was performing Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre at Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Early life and career Carosio was the daughter of composer Natale Carosio, who taught her how to sing as a child. In 1928, she was recommended by soprano Margherita Sheridan to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to sing the role of Feodor in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov with Feodor Chaliapin. The chorus sang in French, Carosio sang in Italian, and Chaliapin sang in Russian. In the same season, she also sang Musetta in La bohème.

She performed throughout Italy: in Bellini's La sonnambula, as Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, and as Konstanze in Mozart's Il Seraglio. She played Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at La Scala, where she performed often and to great acclaim. Some other roles include: Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Zerlina in Auber's Fra Diavolo, the Queen of Shemakhan in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, and Volkhova in his Sadko and the title role of Stravinsky's The Nightingale. She sang Aminta in the first Italian performances of Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau as well as and Egloge in the 1935 world-premiere of Mascagni's Nerone, both at La Scala, where she continued to appear until 1955.

Carosio returned to London in 1946 with the visiting San Carlo company of Naples and played Violetta in La traviata, a role that British soldiers had seen her perform during the war.