She was a pupil of Concepció Bordalba in Barcelona and later studied in Milan under Melchiorre Vidal, who also taught Maria Barrientos, Graziella Pareto, Julián Gayarre, Fernando Valero, Francesc Viñas, and Rosina Storchio.

She made her debut at the age of sixteen, at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, which would become her best-known role.

She would return to the Met in 1924-25, for The Barber of Seville (directed by Armando Agnini), Rigoletto (conducted by Tullio Serafin), and Lucia di Lammermoor (with Beniamino Gigli).

Elvira de Hidalgo recorded for Columbia, with arias from Il barbiere, La sonnambula, and I puritani committed to disc in 1907-08.

Elvira de Hidalgo began teaching in 1933, and later held a position at the Athens Conservatoire, where the young soprano Maria Callas became her student.

[4] On 29 July, her remains returned and was re-buried in her hometown in Spain, with a lyrical gala, coinciding the inauguration of the exhibition dedicated to her memory at the Museo de Valderrobres, which featured a screening of Maria by Callas, and the placement of a plaque in her home building.