Antonietta Meneghel (27 June 1893 – 26 January 1975), better known by her stage name Toti Dal Monte, was a celebrated Italian

operatic Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

lyric soprano A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and ot ...

. She may be best remembered today for her performance as Cio-cio-san in

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

's ''

Madama Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story " Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Lu ...

'', having recorded this role complete in 1939 with

Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli ( , ; 20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer ( lyric tenor). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation. Early life Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a sho ...

as Pinkerton.

Career

Born in

Mogliano Veneto Mogliano Veneto ( ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Treviso, Veneto, northern Italy, located halfway between Mestre (Venice) and Treviso. Culture Mogliano Veneto Is the birthplace of the novel writer Giuseppe Berto and the lyric sopr ...

, in the

Province of Treviso The province of Treviso () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso. The province is surrounded by Province of Belluno, Belluno in the north, Province of Vicenza, Vicenza in the west, Pro ...

, Dal Monte studied singing at the

Naples Conservatory This is a list of music conservatories in Naples, Italy. Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella The Naples Conservatory of Music is a music school located in Naples, Italy. It is situated in the complex of San Pietro a Majella. It was originally ...

under Barbara Marchisio. She made her debut at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

at the age of 23 as Biancofiore in

Zandonai Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer and conductor. Biography Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary. As a young man, he showed such an aptitude for music that he entered the ...

's ''

Francesca da Rimini Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (died between 1283 and 1286) was an Italian noblewoman of Ravenna, who was murdered by her husband, Giovanni Malatesta, upon his discovery of her affair with his brother, Paolo Malatesta. She was a ...

''. She was an immediate success, and her clear "nightingale-like" voice came to be highly appreciated throughout the world. Her best-known roles included the

bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

parts of Amina (in Bellini's ''

La sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (; ''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...

''), Lucia (in

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...

's ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. ...

'') and Gilda (in

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...

's ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...

''). In 1922 she performed several parts opposite the tenor

Carlo Broccardi Carlo Broccardi (1886–1953) was an Italian operatic tenor who had an active international career during the first third of the 20th century. He notably sang for the first complete recordings of Giuseppe Verdi's ''Rigoletto'' (1915, the Duke of M ...

at the

Teatro Massimo The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II. It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe (at the time of its ...

in Palermo; including Cio-cio-san, Gilda, and the title heroine in

Alfredo Catalani Alfredo Catalani (19 June 1854 – 7 August 1893) was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas '' Loreley'' (1890) and '' La Wally'' (1892). ''La Wally'' was composed to a libretto by Luigi Illica, and features Catala ...

's ''

La Wally ''La Wally'' is an opera in four acts by composer Alfredo Catalani, to a libretto by Luigi Illica, first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 20 January 1892. It was Catalani's last opera. The libretto is based on a hugely successful ' by Wilhelmin ...

''. In 1924, fresh from triumphs in Milan and Paris, but before her debut in London or New York, she was engaged by Dame

Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...

to be one of the star singers of an Italian opera company that Melba was organising to make a tour of Australia. She proved a popular and critical success on the tour, and there was no rivalry between the ageing Melba and the much younger Dal Monte. Rather, they threw bouquets after each other's performances. On 23 August 1928, on her third visit to Australia, she married tenor

Enzo de Muro Lomanto Enzo de Muro Lomanto (11 April 1902 – 15 February 1952) was an Italian operatic lyric tenor. Biography Born Vincenzo De Muro in Canosa di Puglia, he studied in Naples, and added his mother's maiden name "Lomanto" to his name to avoid confusion w ...

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney The Cathedral Church and Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians, locally known as Saint Mary's Cathedral, is a Catholic basilica and the seat of the Archdiocese of Sydney. The cathedral is dedicated to the Blessed Vi ...

. On 12 January 1929 at La Scala she created the role of Rosalina, in the world premiere of

Umberto Giordano Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas. His best-known work in that genre was Andrea Chénier (1896). He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Se ...

's ''

Il re ''Il re'' (''The king'') is a novella or opera in one act and three scenes by composer Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on 12 January 1929. Julian Budden: "Il re", ''Grove Musi ...

''. She retired from the operatic stage in 1945. However, she continued to work in the theatre (as well as to make the occasional recording) and appeared in a number of films, of which the best known is perhaps her last,

Enrico Maria Salerno Enrico Maria Salerno (18 September 1926 – 28 February 1994) was an Italian actor, voice actor and film director. He was also the voice of Clint Eastwood in the Italian version of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy films, and the voice of Chris ...

's '' Anonimo veneziano'', a 1970 story about a musician at

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th cen ...

. She became a singing teacher and coach; her pupils included Dodi Protero, Dolores Wilson,

Maaria Eira Maaria Eira (real name Saskia D’Onofrio, Suomalainen; 23 October 1924 – 19 June 1999) was a Finnish operatic soprano and film actress noted for her coloratura voice and stage presence. Personal life Saskia Suomalainen was born to an ar ...

and

Gianna D'Angelo Gianna D'Angelo (18 November 1929 - 27 December 2013) was an American coloratura soprano, primarily active in the 1950s and 1960s. Born Jane Angelovich in Hartford, Connecticut, she studied first at The Juilliard School in New York City with Giu ...

Death

Dal Monte died in 1975 at the age of 81, in

Pieve di Soligo Pieve di Soligo is a town in the province of Treviso, near the border with the province of Belluno in Veneto, Italy. , its had 11,544 inhabitants. "Pieve" means "Parish church". Pieve di Soligo borders with the following municipalities: Cison di ...

, as a result of circulatory disorders.

References

Sources

* This text was based, in part, on the equivalent article in the

Italian Wikipedia The Italian Wikipedia () is the Italian language, Italian-language edition of Wikipedia. This edition was created on 10 May 2001, and first edited on 11 June 2001. As of , it has articles and more than registered accounts. It is the -largest W ...

.
Toti del Monte
at operaitaliana.com. *
"Remembering Toti"
at thewaythefutureblogs.com

Bibliography

* ''The Last Prima Donnas'', by Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf, 1982; {{DEFAULTSORT:Dal Monte, Toti 1893 births 1975 deaths People from Mogliano Veneto Italian operatic sopranos 20th-century Italian women opera singers