Storchio, Rosina (1876–1945)

Italian soprano. Born on May 19, 1876, in Venice; died on July 24, 1945, in Milan; studied under A. Giovannini and G. Fatuo at the Milan Conservatory.

Debuted at Teatro del Verme Milan and Teatro alla Scala (1895); created the role of Musetta in Leoncavallo's Bohème (1897); toured South America, North America, and Europe.

The first performance of Madame Butterfly at Teatro alla Scala on February 17, 1904, was a disaster for the composer, Giacomo Puccini, and the leading soprano, Rosina Storchio. The audience's hisses, cat-calls, and laughter seem strange for what is now one of opera's most beloved works. Not long after, Toscanini conducted the work to better reviews, but Storchio refused to perform again in Italy until 1920, at the end of her career. Before she appeared in Butterfly, Storchio was a great favorite of Italian audiences. She performed in many premieres, including Leoncavallo's Bohème in Venice (1897) and Zazà at La Scala (1900), Giordano's Siberia at La Scala (1903), and Mascagni's Lodoletta in Rome (1917). Storchio made few recordings so one is forced to learn of her abilities through contemporary critics. "There will never be another Violetta to sing with such unutterable perfection," wrote Filippo Sacchi, "moving, laughing, loving, suffering as the slight and gentle Rosina Storchio [with] her enormous seductive eyes, her delightful coquetry, her gay tenderness, her fresh spontaneity." Unafraid to pioneer new works of opera, Storchio was a trailblazer and will certainly be remembered for her premiere performance of Madame Butterfly, a role she understood better than did her first audience.

John Haag , Athens, Georgia