Luisa Tetrazzini (June 29, 1871 - April 28, 1940) was an Italian coloratura soprano. She was born in Florence. Reportedly, she began singing at age 3. Her first voice teacher was her sister, Eva, who also became a successful singer. Tetrazzini later studied at the Instituto Musicale in Florence. She made her operatic debut in 1890 as Inez in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine when the scheduled soprano canceled on short notice. The first part of her career was spent mainly in the Italian provincial theaters and touring in Russia, Spain and South America. Early on she sang a wide and varied repertoire, ranging from dramatic parts such Leonora in La Forza del Destino and Aida (in which role she created a sensation by singing a full-voiced high E-flat at end of the Triumphal Scene), to lyric-coloratura parts like Violetta, Philine, Oscar, Gilda and Lucia. As her career progressed, she sang almost exclusively the lyric-coloratura roles. Tetrazzini made her American debut in San Francisco in 1905. The Metropolitan Opera's general manager, Heinrich Conried, took an option on her services at that time but unaccountably failed to engage her.
In 1907 Tetrazzini made a sensational debut as Violetta in La Traviata at Covent Garden in London, where she was completely unknown, and from that point on she was an international operatic superstar, commanding the highest fees and selling out opera houses and concert halls wherever she performed. In 1908 Tetrazzini finally appeared in New York, not at the Metropolitan, but at Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera House, again as Violetta and again with great success. She remained loyal to Hammerstein and appeared at the Met for only one season, in 1911-12.
Tetrazzini possessed a phenomenal vocal technique that enabled her to surmount any vocal challenge with almost insolent ease. She had complete mastery of runs, trills, staccati and vocal ornaments of all kinds. She also had a brilliant upper register, extending to E above high C. Unlike many other coloratura sopranos at that time, such as Amelita Galli-Curci, Tetrazzini's high notes were not thin and delicate, but full and ringing. On the debit side of the vocal ledger, Tetrazzini's vocal registers were not well-integrated and there could be audible changes in gear as she moved up and down the scale. Her lower register was strong, but the middle voice was weak and undeveloped, with a quality that some critics described as "infantile" and tenor John McCormack likened to "the wailing of a cross infant."
Tetrazzini was short and stout and she was not much of an actress. But she was a good musician and had considerable personality, qualities which are evident in the many records she made. She recorded extensively for Victor and HMV. Her best recordings include a spectacular rendition of "Io son Titania" from Ambroise Thomas' Mignon and "Saper vorreste" from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, in which Tetrazzini's personality virtually jumps out of the grooves at the listener. On a different note, her recording of "Addio del passato" from La Traviata is very moving and also demonstrates her fine legato.
After World War I, Tetrazzini largely abandoned the opera stage for the concert platform. She was less fortunate in her marriages (three of them) than in her career, and her third husband dissipated the considerable fortune she had amassed, forcing her to continue to give concerts long after her voice had gone. Her last years were spent in financial difficulty and physical decline. She died in Milan on April 28, 1940. The state paid for her funeral.