Maria Capuana

Who was Maria Capuana?

Maria Capuana was an Italian mezzo-soprano who had a major international opera career during the first half of the 20th century. She possessed a voice with a dark timbre that she used with great expression.

Born in Fano in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino, Capuana was the older sister of conductor Franco Capuana. She was trained in the art of singing and piano performance at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples where she was a pupil of Beniamino Carelli. She made her stage debut in 1916 at the opera house in Reggio Emilia as Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida; a role which she would repeat at many major opera houses internationally later in her career and notably record for the opera's first commercial recording in 1928.

Capuana soon began appearing in leading roles at major opera houses in both Italy and France and by 1920 she had already made appearances at La Scala in Milan, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Regio in Turin, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris among others.