Anna Laura Augusta Giorgina "Loretta" di Lelio (Jul 27, 1918 Montecatini Terme - Jan 10, 2013 Milano) Loretta di Lelio was trained as a singer and vocal coach by her father, the Italian opera singer Umberto di Lelio, following the traditional Belcanto school of Antonio Cotogni. Her father, engaged by the La Scala from 1921 to 1941, was part of a national and international artistic circle in which his daughter was included. After her vocal training, she made her debut at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1941 (in Zandonai's Giulietta e Romeo!), where she was cast as a soprano lyrico and occasionally took small mezzo-soprano parts in the operas La traviata, Il trovatore and Un ballo in maschera. She sang other roles between 1951 and 1959 in the operas Carmen, Adriana Lecouvreur, Boris Godunov, Giulietta e Romeo by Riccardo Zandonai, Aida, Enea by Pierpaolo Guerini, Don Carlo, Iphigénie en Aulide, Simon Boccanegra and Andrea Chénier. She came to prominence in the late 1940s through engagements in opera films, which were emerging at the time, including the film versions of Donizetti's operas L'elisir d'amore as Giannetta and as Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor. Di Lelio has worked with conductors such as Nello Santi, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Antonino Votto, Arturo Basile, Vittorio Gui, Gabriele Santini and with singers including Maria Caniglia, Giulietta Stella, Leyla Gencer, Fedora Barbieri, Elena Nicolai, Maria Curtis-Verna, Tito Gobbi, Ettore Bastianini, Boris Christoff, as well as Franco Corelli, and has appeared at well-known opera houses in Rome, Bilbao, Oviedo, Enghien-les-Bains, Geneva and Lisbon. In 1952, during an engagement as Mademoiselle Juvenot in the opera production Adriana Lecouvreur, she met the young tenor Franco Corelli, whom she later married, during rehearsals at the Rome Opera. At the end of the 1950s, di Lelio ended her own singing career to accompany her husband's international career as manager, vocal coach and most important advisor. With him, she moved to New York in the early 1960s, where Corelli was engaged at the Metropolitan Opera until 1975. She later lived with her husband in Milan, where she died ten years after his death in 2013 as a result of bronchitis. Source: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretta_di_Lelio René Seghers: Franco Corelli – Prince of tenors. Amadeus Press, New York 2007 Filmography: ♪♫ Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (1947) De Fabritiis; Corradi, Filippeschi, Poli, Tajo - (Alisa) ♪♫ Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore (1946) Morelli; Corradi, Sinimberghi, Tajo, Gobbi - (Giannetta) ♪♫ Verdi: La Traviata (1954) Sanzogno; Carteri, Filacuridi, Tagliabue - (Flora) ♪♫ Puccini: Madama Butterfly (1956) De Fabritiis; Moffo, Cioni, Truccato Pace, Poli - (Kate Pinkerton, listed as 'Lelia Dori') Discography: Solo studio recordings: ♪♫ Puccini: La Bohème "Donde lieta uscì" (Cetra P180) ♪♫ Puccini: La Bohème "Mi chiamano Mimì" (Cetra P180) ♪♫ Puccini: Turandot "Signore ascolta" (Cetra AT0296) dir. Arturo Basile c. 1951 ♪♫ Puccini: Turandot "Tu che sei di gel cinta" (Cetra AT0296) dir. Arturo Basile c. 1951 As featured artist: ♪♫ Franco Corelli - Massenet: Werther "Dividerci dobbiam" (1957) Cetra, Basile ♪♫ Franco Corelli - Verdi: Il trovatore "Ah, sì, ben mio...Di quella pira" (1957) Cetra, Basile Studio opera recordings: ♪♫ Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur (1950) RAI Milano, Simonetto; Gavazzi, Prandelli, Truccato Pace, Meletti - (Mademoisella Juvenot) ♪♫ Cilea: L'arlesiana (1951) RAI Torino, Basile; Tassinari, Tagliavini, Galli, Silveri - (L'innocente) ♪♫ Verdi: La traviata (1952) Roma, Ricci; Schimenti, Pola, Monachesi - (Flora) ♪♫ Giordano: Andrea Chénier (1952) Roma, Paoletti; Sarri, Sacchi, Manca Serra - (Bersi) ♪♫ Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore (1953) Roma, Santini; Carosio, Monti, Luise, Gobbi - (Gianetta) ♪♫ Donizetti: La favorita (1954) RAI Torino, Questa; Barbieri, Raimondi, Tagliabue, Neri - (Ines) ♪♫ Verdi: Don Carlo (1954) Roma, Santini; Filippeschi, Christoff, Gobbi, Stella, Nicolai - (Tebaldo) ♪♫ Verdi: Aida (1956) RAI Torino, Questa; Curtis-Verna, Corelli, Pirazzini, Guelfi, Neri - (Sacerdotessa) Live opera recordings: ♪♫ Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (1952) Rome, Rodzinsky; Christoff, Picchi, Corsi - (Xenia) ♪♫ Giordano: Andrea Chénier (1958) Napoli, Capuana; Corelli, Bastianini, Stella - (Bersi) ♪♫ Bizet: Carmen (1959) Palermo, Dervaux; Corelli, Simionato, Guelfi, Freni - (Frasquita) ♪♫ Verdi: Il trovatore (1960) Napoli, Santini; Corelli, Parutto, Guelfi, Barbieri - (Ines)