Fortunata Tedesco

An Italian soprano who sang contralto parts as readily, with a career on both sides of the Atlantic. A pupil of Nicola Vaccai, she made her La Scala debut in 1844, and by 1847 was singing in New York, Boston and Havana, where she created the title role of Arditi's Gulnara in 1848. The Paris Opéra engaged her from 1851 to 1857 and again from 1860 to 1862, and there she created Théodora in Halévy's Le Juif errant and, in 1861, the Vénus of the French Tannhäuser. Lisbon, Madrid and Venice followed before she retired in 1866.