Maria Spezia-Aldighieri

Maria Spezia-Aldighieri was an Italian soprano whose Violetta at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice in 1854 made a success of La traviata after its failure at La Fenice. A pupil of Domenico Foroni in Verona, she made her debut there in 1849 as Beatrice di Tenda. She first sang at La Scala in 1857, as Valentine in Les Huguenots, and in 1861 sang Abigaille there to the Nabucco of her husband, the baritone Gottardo Aldighieri. Her repertory ran from Norma and Pacini's Sappho to Leonora in Il trovatore, and she sang into the 1870s.