Hina Spani

At the Teatro Colón she was heard between 1915 and 1940, creating the title part in the world première of Respighi's Maria Egiziaca in 1934, as well as several operas by Argentine composers.

She sang over 70 rôles ranging from Ottavia in Monteverdi's 17th century opera L'incoronazione di Poppea to works by then living composers.

Spani's style and technique were typical of a Latin soprano of the 1920-1945 period, but her rich tone was much smoother and her musicianship more subtle than that of most of her contemporaries.

She was an outstanding spinto with a constant appreciation of the expressive limits of the music that she sang; as a result, she invested her operatic interpretations with a unique combination of intensity and restraint.

Inter-war opera-goers spoke admiringly of the "grand", expansive quality that her voice possessed when it was experienced in the acoustics of a theatre as opposed to a boxy recording studio.