1932 Galli-Curci Italian Opera Soprano Diva Libretto Signature UNC Chapel Hill

Description

From Wednesday, January 27, 1932, Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we have a opera recital program featuring the world famous Italian opera soprano Amelita Galli-Curci.
This one page libretto folio is signed, “Galli-Curci”, in blue fountain pen, and the signature is guaranteed authentic.
The event took place at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in Memorial Hall, in 1932.
Galli-Curci’s Performance was sponsored by the local Alpha Ro Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America (colloquially known as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Mu Alpha, or simply Sinfonia, ΦΜΑ).
Below is a very brief bio of the lovely Amelita Galli-Curci and her amazing talent. Amelita Galli-Curci’s fame is undisputed, and she was quite a prolific performer in her time. If you wish to know more you can go to this link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelita_Galli-Curci, or see below.
The libretto is approx. 5-1/2” x10”, with the signature approx. 4” wide X 1-1/2” high, signed over the fourth movement, on cream-colored stock. The paper is in good condition with a few folds, 2 dog ears at the top left and a small unnoticeable repaired tear at the top, none of which interfere with the signature. See the photo for details.
Will make an excellent addition to any Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity collector, a wonderful item for the music memorabilia aficionado, and an outstanding gift for the opera history or the UNCCH enthusiast.
This signed item will be professionally packaged, AND READY TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION OR GIVE AS A GIFT.
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The Item Will Be Professionally Packaged, AND READY TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION OR GIVE AS A GIFT.
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Amelita Galli-Curci (18 Nov. 1882 – 26 Nov. 1963) was an Italian coloratura soprano. She was one of the most popular operatic singers of the 20th century, with her recordings selling in large numbers.
She was born as Amelita Galli into an upper-middle-class Italian family of Spanish heritage in Milan, where she studied piano at the Milan Conservatory, winning a gold medal for piano performance, and at the age of 16 was offered a professorship. By her own choice, Galli-Curci's voice was largely self-trained at the beginning of her career. She later studied regularly with Estelle Liebling for more than a decade in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s.
Galli-Curci made her operatic debut in 1906 at Trani, as Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, and she rapidly became acclaimed throughout Italy for the sweetness and agility of her voice and her captivating musical interpretations. She toured widely in Europe, Russia and South America. In 1915, she sang two performances of Lucia di Lammermoor
with Enrico Caruso in Buenos Aires. Galli-Curci toured extensively throughout her career, including a 1924 Great Britain concert tour, where she appeared in 20 cities and a tour of Australia a year later.
Galli-Curci first arrived in the United States in the autumn of 1916 as a virtual unknown. Her stay in the U.S. was intended to be brief, but the acclaim she received for her historic American debut as Gilda in Rigoletto in Chicago, on 18 Nov. 1916 (her 34th birthday) was so wildly enthusiastic that she accepted an offer to extend her association with the Chicago Opera Association, where she appeared until the end of the 1924 season. Also in 1916, Galli-Curci signed a recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company and made her first records a few weeks before her American debut. She recorded exclusively for Victor until 1930.
On 14 Nov. 1921, while still under contract with the Chicago Opera, Galli-Curci made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Violetta in La Traviata, opposite tenor Beniamino Gigli as Alfredo. She was one of the few singers of that era who were contracted to both opera companies simultaneously. Galli-Curci remained at the Met until her retirement from the operatic stage nine years later.
In 1922, Galli-Curci built an estate in Highmount, New York, which she called "Sul Monte". The estate’s rooms still contain staircases today which the architect specifically included, so the diva could make a dramatic entrance for her guests.
Weary of opera house politics and convinced that opera was a dying art form, Galli-Curci retired from the operatic stage in 1930 to concentrate instead on concert performances. Throat problems and the uncertain pitching of top notes had plagued her for several years, and she underwent surgery in 1935 for the removal of a thyroid goiter. It was thought her voice suffered following the surgery, specifically, a nerve to her larynx, the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve, was thought to have been damaged, resulting in the loss of her ability to sing high pitches. This nerve has since become known as the "nerve of Galli-Curci."
In 1908, Amelita Galli wed an Italian nobleman and painter, the Marchese Luigi Curci, attaching his surname to hers. They divorced in 1920. The Marchese Curci petitioned the papal council in Rome for an annulment of the marriage in 1922. In 1921, Galli-Curci married Homer Samuels, her accompanist. Their marriage lasted until Samuels' death in 1956.
On 24 Nov. 1936, Galli-Curci at age 54, made an ill-advised return to opera, appearing in a single performance as Mimi in La bohème in Chicago. It was painfully clear that her best singing days were behind her and after another year of recitals she went into complete retirement, living in California. She taught singing privately until shortly before her death from emphysema in La Jolla, California on 26 Nov. 1963, at the age of 81. Among her students was soprano Jean Fenn.
Galli-Curci was a popular recording artist and her voice can still be heard on original 78-rpm records and their LP and CD reissues.
Her country estate near Fleischmanns, New York, where she resided from 1922 to 1937, known as Sul Monte, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
Galli-Curci is honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording, with a star located at 6121 Hollywood Boulevard.