Golden-voiced soprano Renata Tebaldi is one of the most legendary singers to have graced the operatic stage. Tebaldi was born in Pesaro, Italy in 1922, the only daughter of a violin teacher. She studied at the Parma Conservatory and debuted in Rovigo in Boito’s Mefistofele in 1944. Two years later conductor Arturo Toscanini picked her to sing the soprano part in Giuseppe Verdi’s Te Deum at the re-opening of La Scala in Milan after World War II. Toscanini referred to her voice as the “voce d’angelo” (voice of an angel). Tebaldi’s Amercian debut occurred in San Francisco in Verdi’s Aida, but she performed most often in the United States with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, where she debuted in 1955 as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello. She continued to appear there in many of the most prominent roles in the Italian repertory. Tebaldi’s operatic farewell performance came in 1973 and she retired entirely from singing three years after that. She died in late 2004 at her home in San Marino.