After studying with her father, Beniamino Carelli, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, she made her professional debut in 1895 in the title role of Mercadante's La vestale during the centenary celebrations at Altamura and went on to appear in the opera houses of many Italian cities.

In Buenos Aires (1902) she triumphed in the premiered of "Khrysé" by Arturo Berutti (after Pierre Louys ´s "Aphrodite"), singing the title role.

In 1903, she sang the title role in Edoardo Mascheroni's opera Lorenza for its South American premiere in Buenos Aires.

During her 14-year management of the theatre, several operas received their first Rome performances including Richard Strauss's Elektra (in which she sang the title role), La fanciulla del West, Turandot and Il trittico by Giacomo Puccini; Parsifal by Richard Wagner; Francesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai; Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky; Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns.

[1] In 1926, Carelli and Walter Mocchi sold the Costanzi to the Rome City Council and withdrew from most of their other business interests in South America.