Margherita Carosio (7 June 1908 – 10 January 2005) was a leading Italian operatic coloratura soprano and actress, starring in Spanish films during the 1930s.

[2][3] Carosio is most often remembered today as the singer whose indisposition in January 1949 led to Maria Callas learning and singing the role of Elvira in Bellini's I puritani in five days while she was performing Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre at Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

She sang Aminta in the first Italian performances of Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau as well as and Egloge in the 1935 world-premiere of Mascagni's Nerone, both at La Scala, where she continued to appear until 1955.

[citation needed] Carosio returned to London in 1946 with the visiting San Carlo company of Naples and played Violetta in La traviata, a role that British soldiers had seen her perform during the war.

[2] She later appeared with a scratch Italian company as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, which she had also sung at La Scala and recorded for EMI.