Mafalda Favero

Mafalda Favero was an Italian operatic soprano. She was baptized Giuseppina, but from the beginning of her career she adopted the name Mafalda.

She began her professional career in her early 20s in Cremona, then moving to Parma where she sang several roles, before eventually getting to La Scala where she debuted singing Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Arturo Toscanini in 1929. She remained one of the regular singers at La Scala until 1950, also singing in London (Royal Opera House) in 1937 and 1939, and in the United States (Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera) in 1938. She had a large repertoire, including many contemporary works. She sang in the first performances of Alfano's L'ultimo Lord, Mascagni's Pinotta, Zandonai's Farsa amorosa, and Wolf-Ferrari's Il campiello and his operatic adaptation of de Vega's play La dama Boba.

Attracted to the role of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, she later blamed this for her early retirement in 1954: "The role of Cio-Cio-San was my ruination. To sing it as I did, giving everything I had and then some, exacted an enormous price. I am quite aware that Butterfly cut short my career by at least five years".

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafalda_Favero
• http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/favero-giuseppina-detta-mafalda...
• http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Favero__Mafalda/hauptteil_f...
• http://www.coroliricomafaldafavero.it/175086947