Elena Mauti Nunziata is a retired Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 opera singer.

She initially attended the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 where she was taught by Gina Cigna

Gina Cigna

Gina Cigna was a French-Italian opera singer, one of the leading dramatic soprano of the inter-war period.- Biography :...

, and made her unofficial debut in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 as Musetta in La Boheme

La bohème

La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...

. Her first recognized success on the stage was as Palermo in Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

's I Puritani

I puritani

I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...

. A soprano lirico, she gained notability playing Violetta in the opera Traviata, a remarkable 1977 production in Madrid, and afterwards played the popular Nedda in the opera Pagliacci

Pagliacci

Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...

. Other notable performances include leading roles in Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...

 and Verdi's Trovatore and Forza del Destino. While she ended her international career playing Magda in La Rondine

La rondine

La rondine is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...

 and Tosca

Tosca

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...

 from the famous opera by Puccini, during the 1990s she performed again in the Teatro Regio di Torino in the role of Francesca da Rimini

Francesca da Rimini

Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna. She was a historical contemporary of Dante Alighieri, who portrayed her as a character in the Divine Comedy.-Arranged marriage:...

.

In the late 90s, while still in good vocal health, Elena Mauti Nunziata left the opera scene with a farewell concert in Brescia

Brescia

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...

, where she performed the end of Act 1 of Traviata.

Sources

• McClean, Eric, "Montreal Opera confident as it maps out future", The Montreal Gazette
  The Gazette (Montreal)
  The Gazette, often called the Montreal Gazette to avoid ambiguity, is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with three other daily English newspapers all having shut down at different times during the second half of the 20th century.-History:In 1778,...
  
  , 24 March 1984, p. C2
• Metropolitan Opera
  Metropolitan Opera
  The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
  
  , http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/gisrch2k.r?Term=Mauti-Nunziata,%20Elena%20%5BSoprano%5D&limit=5000&vsrchtype=no&xBranch=ALL&xmtype=&Start=&End=&theterm=Ma%75%74i-N%75nzia%74a,%20%45l%65na%20%5BSop%72ano%5D&srt=&x=0&xHome=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/bibpro.htm&xHomePath=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/Performance Record:Mauti-Nunziata, Elena (Soprano)] on the MetOpera Database
• Rich, Maria F. (ed.), "Mauti Nunziata, Elena". Who's Who in Opera, Arno Press, 1976, p. 350. ISBN 040506652X
• New York Times, "Soprano Sings Mimi In Her Debut at Met", 7 November 1977, p. 43
• Zurletti, Michelangelo, "Con un Trovatore guerriero Verdi e tornato all'Arena", La Repubblica
  La Repubblica
  la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
  
  , 6 July, 1985, p. 21