Rosa Ponselle(1897-1981)
- Soundtrack
Rosa Ponselle was born to Neapolitan immigrants in Conneticut. She was
a natural-born singer and launched a career first in Vaudville, where
she was working in 1918, when Enrico Caruso discovered her and
persuaded her to join the Metropolitan Opera. Her debut occurred in
Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" as Leonora. She had had no formal
training as an opera singer and for nearly twenty years thereafter
managed great successes as a soprano at the Met and in other opera
houses in America and Europe. Primarily remembered for her performances
in Verdi operas, she abruptly withdrew from the stage in 1937 and
retired at the age of 40 -- newly wed to Carle A. Jackson -- to a home
near Baltimore, Maryland. She continued to stay active in the operatic
world, occasionally recording, but mostly devoting her energies and
talents for the next 44 years to a school she formed at her home, where
the likes of Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills (among others) were
coached and encouraged onto their own successful operatic
careers.
