Tina Alasia

An Italian mezzo-soprano and a Wagner specialist, sister of the singer Teresa Alasia. She began studying in Turin in 1897, at the Liceo Musicale and with Annetta Casaloni, and made her debut there in 1901. In 1904 she created Cio-Cio-San's mother in the first Madama Butterfly at La Scala, and the following year sang in Orefice's Mosè. Her Wagner roles were Brangäne, Ortrud, Fricka and Erda, the last two at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in the 1912–13 season. She also sang in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, and retired to teach singing in Turin.