Amelita Galli-Curci (originally simply Galli) was born into an upper-middle-class family in Milan: her maternal grandfather had been an opera conductor and her grandmother a soprano. She studied the piano with her mother from the age of five and attended her first opera at seven. At the Milan Conservatory, where she was a pupil of Vincenzo Appiani, Galli-Curci won the gold medal for piano when she was sixteen; but the composer Mascagni, having heard her singing at a domestic opera recital, advised her to follow this musical calling, rather than the piano. Galli-Curci adopted his advice but was largely self-taught as a singer, learning through listening to other sopranos, studying old singing manuals and doing piano exercises with her voice rather than the piano.

Her successful operatic debut occurred in 1906 at Trani in Southern Italy as Gilda / Rigoletto. Subsequently Galli-Curci was contracted to the Rome Opera for its 1908 season, having in the meantime married the painter Luigi Curci, whose name she added to her own. She made her Rome debut as Bettina in Bizet’s Don Procopio, again meeting with great success; and after touring Egypt she appeared throughout Italy, adding to her repertoire Amina / La sonnambula, Elvira / I puritani, Violetta / La traviata, and the title part in Lucia di Lammermoor, which she sang opposite Caruso at Buenos Aires in 1915 during one of her several tours of South America.

Following appearances in Cuba and Central America during 1916, Galli-Curci decided to return to Italy via New York, armed with a letter of introduction to the Victor Company. After recording for Victor she made her debut with the Chicago Opera Company as Gilda during November 1916 to an ecstatic reception, followed by appearances as Lucia, Violetta, Juliette / Roméo et Juliette and Rosina / Il barbiere di Siviglia. Boosted by the high sales of her recordings, her New York debut with the Chicago company on tour at the beginning of 1918 was even more successful: her first performance there, in the title role of Meyerbeer’s Dinorah, earned sixty curtain calls. Later roles with the Chicago company included the title parts in Lakmé, Linda di Chamounix, Manon and Madama Butterfly as well as Mimì / La Bohème.

After divorcing her first husband Galli-Curci married her accompanist Homer Samuels, thus acquiring American citizenship. She continued to record for Victor and opened the 1921–1922 season of the Metropolitan Opera, New York as Violetta. The Met (after a break with the Chicago Opera in 1923) now became the main arena for her appearances until 1930. Between seasons she toured widely, throughout North America and Canada, Hawaii and the Philippines, Australia, China and Japan. Although she was never heard in opera in London, Galli-Curci undertook concert tours of England during 1924, 1930 and 1934.

In 1930, following throat and pitching problems, she decided to retire from the operatic stage, giving a farewell performance at the Met as Rosina. Galli-Curci underwent throat surgery for goitre in 1935, but an attempt at a comeback (as Mimì in Chicago during 1936) was not successful. After a handful of recitals during the 1936–1937 season she finally retired from the stage but remained active as a teacher for many years.

Galli-Curci’s numerous recordings, especially those made with the acoustic process, demonstrate her great agility and sweetness of tone. As the critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor has written: ‘Her style, though devoid of dramatic intensity, had a languorous grace and charm of line capable of conveying both gaiety and pathos.’

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).