American soprano Rosa Ponselle was born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1897. She first studied singing with her mother, and then with Anna Ryan. Initially she sang in film theatres and vaudeville, often with her sister, Carmela.
In 1918, her coach, William Thorner, brought her to the attention of Caruso and Gatti-Casazza, the director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The same year, she made her operatic début in the first Metropolitan performance of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino , playing Leonora opposite Caruso and de Luca. She performed at the Metropolitan for 19 seasons.
In addition to her popularity in her home country, she had a successful international career, singing a wide range of the spinto r├┤les in most of the leading opera houses worldwide. Her most celebrated performances were as the druid priestess, Norma, in BelliniΓÇÖs opera of the same name.
Ponselle's voice is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful of the century. The perfection of her technique, warmth and evenness of tone are still to be heard in the legacy of recordings which she left. One of her pupils was Sherrill Milnes, the Metropolitan baritone. She died in Baltimore in 1981.
