Regina Isabel Luisa Pacini Quintero (January 6, 1871, Lisbon,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

– September 18, 1965,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

) was a lyric soprano who married the Argentine politician

Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear Pacheco (4 October 1868 – 23 March 1942), was an Argentine lawyer and politician, who served as president of Argentina between from 1922 to 1928. His period of government coincided precisely with the en ...

and became First Lady of Argentina.''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal '' Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argentina. Its motto is: "''La Na ...

'' (9 January 2005)
"Regina Pacini & Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear: el dandy y la diva del canto"
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Biography

Born the daughter of the Italian baritone Pietro Andrea Giorgi-Pacini and Spanish Felisa Quintero in Lisbon, during the regency of her father's Teatro San Carlos in Lisbon. As soprano was a major exponent of the bel canto era, such as ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', ''I Puritani'', ''Rigoletto'', ''Manon'' and Rosina in ''The Barber of Seville''. Shestudied in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi and debuted in 1888 as Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula in Lisbon theater where she continued to sing, with great success until 1904. In 1889 she sang at

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

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and

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. The Teatro Real was introduced in 1890, again with ''La Sonnambula'', returning regularly until 1905 is presented in 1893 at the Liceo in Barcelona and in 1894/95 appears in Warsaw and St. Petersburg. In 1899 she debuted at the Teatro Solis in Montevideo and Buenos Aires Politeama Theatre where she met Dr. Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, future president of Argentina (1922-1928), who followed her around from performance to performance in different theaters in the world for a number of years until she finally accepted his marriage proposal. In Covent Garden London shared deals with Enrico Caruso. With the new century comes in different Italian theaters (Rome, Florence, the San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan). In 1907, at the height of her career, she married Dr. Alvear, retiring from acting and became a major benefactor. During World War I the couple lived in Paris and his actions earned him the Legion of Honor by the French government. In 1938, Alvear founded the Casa del Teatro in Buenos Aires, a haven for actors, with 45 rooms, two small museums and the headquarters of the Regina Theatre named in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pacini, Regina 1871 births 1965 deaths Recipients of the Legion of Honour 19th-century Portuguese women opera singers Portuguese operatic sopranos Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery First Ladies and Gentlemen of Argentina 20th-century Portuguese women opera singers Portuguese emigrants to Argentina Portuguese people of Italian descent Portuguese people of Spanish descent Singers from Lisbon