Rita Fornia

An American singer who spent fifteen seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, rarely in leading roles but across an unusually wide range. Born Regina Newman, she studied with Sofia Scalchi and Jean de Reszke, and made her debut at Hamburg in 1901 as a coloratura soprano. With Henry Savage's English Grand Opera Company she took soprano and mezzo roles alike, once singing Elisabeth and Venus in one Tannhäuser. At the Met from 1907 she created parts in Parker's Mona and Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne, and in 1918 the Abbess in Suor Angelica. She retired in 1922 and died in Paris that October.