Labia, Fausta

views updated

Labia, Fausta

Labia, Fausta, Italian soprano, sister of Maria Labia; b. Verona, April 3, 1870; d. Rome, Oct. 6, 1935. She studied with her mother and with Aldighieri. After making her operatic debut as Alice in Robert le diable in Verona (1892), she sang in Stockholm (1893–95) and Lisbon (1895–96); then appeared in various Italianopera centers, including Milan’s La Scala and Rome’s Teatro Costanzi (1901). She sang in Barcelona (1904–05); made her last stage appearance in Buenos Aires (1912); subsequently taught in Rome. In 1907 she married the tenor Emilio Perea. She wrote the method L’arte del respiro nella recitazione e nel canto (1936).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire