Biography

Opera singer (soprano).

Long before she sang in the leading opera houses of the world, before she reigned at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and shared the stage with Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto knew how to draw a crowd. She gave her first concerts as a young girl in Italy during World War II, serenading neighbors from her apartment window.They would thank her with candies - a rare pleasure amid the deprivations of the war and an early taste of the adoration of an audience.

The Italian singer was regarded by some opera aficionados as an heir to the legacy of Maria Callas.

Maria Callas, perhaps unwittingly, had helped launch Renata Scotto to stardom in 1957, during a production of Bellini's "La Sonnambula" at the Edinburgh festival in Scotland. Renata Scotto was 23 at the time and a rising soprano in the opera houses of Italy. By Scotto's account, Callas, ever the jet-setter, had a party to attend elsewhere and refused to sing when an extra performance was added to the run. In another version of the episode, Callas was advised by her physician not to exert herself by performing. Either way, Callas withdrew. On only a few days' notice, and having never before sung the opera,Renata Scotto agreed to stand in. She pulled off the feat with such aplomb that the audience kept summoning her back for curtain calls, Scotto recounted, until the conductor finally walked onstage and implored the house to "let her go.".

Renata Scotto was a soprano of electrifying dramatic power who embraced the role of prima donna, and she became one of the most celebrated opera singers of the 20th century.

I prefer to have one unbeautiful note in my voice, than perfection that doesn't mean anything.

I didn't know any opera. I sang the songs I heard on the radio. But in those days, they played popular songs sung by the best opera voices, like Beniamino Gigli singing Mamma and Tito Schipa singing Vivere. I didn't know it then, but they were my first voice teachers!

Leading roles in smaller theaters are better than second leads at La Scala

You should never be too much involved... otherwise, you suffer and you can't sing. This is what happened in the very first years I sang Madame Butterfly.

The best advice I can give a young aspiring singer is not to become an old aspiring singer.