Rosa Raisa

A Polish-born American dramatic soprano, and the first Turandot. She fled a pogrom at fourteen and settled in Naples, where she studied with Barbara Marchisio, and made her debut at Parma in 1913 as Leonora in Verdi's Oberto. Later that year she began a long association with Chicago, singing there regularly until 1936, and in the first American performances of works by Mascagni, Montemezzi and Respighi. At La Scala she created Asteria in Boito's Nerone in 1924 and Turandot in 1926. She married the baritone Giacomo Rimini, and after retiring the two ran a singing school in Chicago.