Mafalda Favero

One of many Italian artists whose American careers were cut short by pre-WWII anxieties, lyric soprano Mafalda Favero sang only two performances at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1938, both as Mimi. For those who heard her there, however, the experience was indelible. Her voice, lovely appearance, and dramatic gifts proclaimed her an ideal interpreter of Puccini's much beset heroine, and her gift for creating electricity on-stage marked her as one of the most sympathetic artists of her era. Despite of, or because of, a generous use of vibrato (common to the Italian singers...