Sara Scuderi

She sang widely in Italy and Europe (most notably in the Netherlands), having had a seven-year contract at La Scala, "where she received high praise for her interpretations of the most well-known operas".

[1] Born in Catania, Sicily, Scuderi made her debut at the Teatro Lirico Coccia in Novara playing Leonora in Il Trovatore (November 1925).

She was engaged in a seven-year contract with Milan's Teatro Alla Scala, where she received high praise and partnered with the most famous male artists of her time, including Beniamino Gigli and Galliano Masini.

For the latter part of her life, she lived at the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896.

Film director Daniel Schmid used Scuderi as a central character in his capture of the essence of the retirement home for these former glories in his Il Bacio di Tosca, in 1984.