Elvira Casazza

[1] One of Toscanini's favourite singers, she was considered an outstanding interpreter of Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff during the 1920s and created several roles in Italian operas of the early 20th century.

[2] Casazza was born Elivra Mari in Ferrara and studied in Milan with Adele Borghi before making her operatic debut as Azucena in Il trovatore in Sanremo in 1910.

[3] She was married to Umberto Casazza, a violinist from Busseto and a distant relative of the conductor, Giulio Gatti-Casazza.

[4] Following the death of her husband a few years later, Casazza retired from the stage with a final performance at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste in 1947 as Mother in Charpentier's Louise.

She devoted her later years to teaching singing at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro and then at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.