Renata Scotto

Renowned for her intensely dramatic vocal approach, Renata Scotto distinguished herself across the Italian operatic canon, particularly in Bellini’s Norma and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. She appeared in more than 45 operas on stages worldwide and shared the platform with Renata Tebaldi and Mario Del Monaco.

Scotto was born on February 24, 1934. On Christmas Eve 1952 she stepped onto the boards for the first time in her native Savona, singing Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. Shortly afterward she secured her first professional engagement at the Teatro Nuovo by winning the Milan Lyric Association competition and again portrayed the same heroine. While her career was rapidly expanding she auditioned for the role of Walter in Alfredo Catalani’s La Wally at La Scala; the house immediately engaged her, and on the December 7, 1953 opening night she was recalled fifteen times, eclipsing the seven ovations granted her colleagues Renata Tebaldi and Mario Del Monaco. From that evening her stature at La Scala grew steadily.

In 1957 the company brought Bellini’s La Sonnambula to Edinburgh with Maria Callas cast as Amina. Surging public demand prompted additional showings; when Callas declined to sing further performances, Scotto was summoned as replacement. Her triumphant assumption of the part established her as an artist of international rank.

Personal milestones accompanied her artistic ascent. In June 1960 she married Lorenzo Anselmi, and the couple later became parents to Laura and Filippo. That same year she debuted at London’s Royal Opera House as Mimi in La Bohème. Her first United States appearance came in 1965 at the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly; the New York Herald Tribune declared the performance “an occasion for rejoicing, and there was plenty of it in the form of applause and welcoming shouts to the new artist who, above all, is distinctly an individual.”

While portraying Elena in Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani in 1970, Scotto encountered her first openly antagonistic audience when a faction began chanting Maria Callas’s name. Callas, seated in the house, offered no acknowledgment of the demonstrators and instead rose to applaud Scotto.

Across more than four decades the soprano assayed an extensive gallery of roles that encompassed Violetta in La Traviata, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Mimi in La Bohème, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Francesca in Francesca da Rimini. She received an Emmy Award for her portrayal of La Gioconda in San Francisco. In 1990 she joined Ileana Cotrubas and Elena Obraztsova for a joint appearance billed as the “Three Sopranos.” After retiring from the stage she turned to producing and directing, taught at the Juilliard School and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and conducted frequent master classes. Scotto died in Savona on August 16, 2023.