Opera soprano star Tebaldi dies after long illness at 82

RENATA TEBALDI, the Italian soprano who was one of the biggest stars at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Italy’s La Scala, died yesterday. She was 82.

The soprano died at her home in San Marino, a tiny independent republic in north-central Italy, after a long illness, said her doctor, Dr Niksa Simetovic.

Ms Tebaldi was considered to have one of the most beautiful Italian voices of the 20th century, relying on rich, perfectly produced tones. She was also renowned for her supposed rivalry with the fiery Maria Callas. For years, opera fans devoured details of what they perceived as a prima donna duel, and La Scala devotees were divided into Tebaldi and Callas camps much like Milan soccer fans are hotly split over that city’s two soccer teams. The two women, at their peaks in the 1950s, had sharply contrasting temperaments.