Teresa Stolz

Teresa Stolz (born 2 June 1834, Elbekosteletz (Czech: Kostelec nad Labem), Bohemia – died 23 August 1902, Milan) was a Bohemian soprano, long resident in Italy, who was associated with significant premieres of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, and may have been his mistress. She has been described as "the Verdian dramatic soprano par excellence, powerful, passionate in utterance, but dignified in manner and secure in tone and control".

Teresa Stolz was born Tereza Stolzová (Tereza is sometimes seen in diminutive versions such as Teresina, Teresie or Terezie) in Kostelec nad Labem in the Austrian Empire in 1834. This is now in the Czech Republic. She studied under Josef Neruda then at the Prague Conservatoire under Giovanni Battista Gardigiani.

She was expelled from the Conservatoire in October 1851 but continued her study with Vojtěch Čaboun. She moved to Trieste to be with her brother, and where she studied with Luigi Ricci (who had conducted the 1848 premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Il corsaro and later became her brother-in-law).

She made her debut in Tiflis in 1857 and also appeared in Odessa, Constantinople, Nice, Granada and other places. In 1864 she went to Italy, where she was a pupil of Francesco Lamperti in Milan. She made her European debut in Turin in 1864. She appeared regularly at La Scala, Milan, between 1865 and 1877. She created the role of Leonora in the revised version of Verdi's La forza del destino in Milan on 27 February 1869.

She was the first to sing the title role of Aida in Italy (La Scala, 8 February 1872; also its European premiere). Verdi did not attend the world premiere in Cairo the previous December, and considered the Milan performance, in which he was heavily involved at every stage, to be its real premiere.

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