Giannina Lucacewska

A Polish mezzo-soprano who made her career in Italy and Spain. Born Giovanna Łukaszewska in Warsaw, she moved to Italy in 1886 to study at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, and in 1888 sang there in Mendelssohn's Elijah under Giuseppe Martucci. She was Fricka in Die Walküre at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples in 1895, and in 1904 created Suzuki in the revised Madama Butterfly at Brescia, drawing praise from Puccini himself. She sang Fricka again at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1909 and 1910, after which no further appearance of hers is recorded.