Maria Zamboni

An Italian soprano, and the first Liù. She studied at Parma and Milan, made her debut at Piacenza in 1921 as Marguerite in Faust, and sang at La Scala from 1924 to 1931, creating Liù there under Toscanini in 1926. In 1930 she created Maria in Pizzetti's Lo straniero in Rome. Her roles ran from Elsa and Eva to Desdemona and Massenet's and Puccini's Manons, and she recorded Manon Lescaut complete in 1930. She was a favourite in South America, above all at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. She retired in 1936, after singing Liù again at Naples.