Ilva Ligabue Italian opera singer-soprano Date of Birth: 23.05.1932 Country: Italy

Biography of Ilva Ligabue

Ilva Ligabue, an Italian opera soprano, was best known for her portrayal of Alice Ford in Falstaff. She recorded this role twice, under the baton of Georg Solti for RCA in 1963 and Leonard Bernstein for Sony in 1966. Ligabue was born on May 23, 1932, in Reggio Emilia, the administrative center of the province of the same name. She studied at the Milan Conservatory and La Scuola di Canto alla Scala, making her debut on the small stage of La Scala - Piccola Scala in 1953, in Luigi Cherubini's opera L'hôtellerie portugaise. Following this, Ligabue performed in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La Serva-Padrona. Two years later, she made her debut on the main stage of La Scala in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's I quatro rusteghi, an opera by an Italo-German composer, which marked the beginning of her successful career in major Italian opera houses. Her engagements included performances at the opera houses of Venice and Palermo, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, and again at La Scala, where she performed Beatrice di Tenda by Vincenzo Bellini in 1961. This role led to another invitation to sing at La Scala, this time as Margherita in Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito. In the same year, Ligabue embarked on a remarkable international career. She made her debut at the Chicago Opera in Mefistofele and had successful performances in Dallas and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Additionally, Ligabue was a sought-after guest in major European venues, including the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and she was a regular participant at the Glyndebourne Festival and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where she garnered particular admiration for her role as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte. In 1965, Ligabue opened the season at La Scala, singing in La forza del destino. A sensitive and intelligent singer and talented actress, Ligabue excelled in the roles of Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Desdemona in Otello. She left an extensive discography, including Verdi's Otello in Dallas in 1962 and I masnadieri in Rome in 1972. Ligabue retired from the stage in the late 1970s. She passed away on August 19, 1998, in Palermo at the age of 66.