GALLI-CURCI, AMELITA (189o— ), can coloratura soprano, was born at Milan, Italy, on Nov. 18, 189o, of Italian and Spanish parentage. After a general education in the schools of Milan she entered the Royal Conservatory in the same city and studied piano and harmony. As a vocalist, however, she was self-taught. Her operatic debut was at Rome in 1909 as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. She later toured the smaller cities in Italy, appeared at Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, and had several successful seasons in South America, Cuba and Mexico. Her fame in these countries was immediate, but she was almost un known in the United States when in 1916 she was engaged by the Chicago Opera Association. Her Chicago debut on Nov. 18, 1916, was again as Gilda in Rigoletto. She was re-engaged for four sea sons. On Jan. 27, she appeared for the first time in New York city in the title role of Meyerbeer's Dinorah at the Lexington opera house. She joined the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1921, opening the season that year as Violetta in La Traviata. Besides the roles mentioned her favourite repertoire includes the roles of Juliette in Romeo et Juliette, Lucia in Lucia de Lammer moor, Mimi in La Boherne and Leila in Bizet's Pearl Fishers. Her voice reaches astonishing heights with tone smooth, warm and well rounded. It is also a voice of great fluency, enabling its owner to sing many intricate roles with simplicity and naturalness.
See autobiographical articles in The Ladies Home Journal (Feb., Mar. and May, 1924) .