Maliponte (real name, Macciaïoli), Adriana
Maliponte (real name, Macciaïoli), Adriana
Maliponte(real name, Macciaïoli), Adriana, Italian soprano; b. Brescia, Dec. 26,1938. She was a student of Suzanne Steppen at the Mulhouse Cons, and of Carmen Melis in Como. In 1958 she made her operatic debut as Mimi at Milan’s Teatro Nuovo. In 1960 she won the Geneva Competition. After singing Micaëla at the Paris Opéra in 1962, she was chosen to create the role of Sardulla in Menotti’s Le dernier sauvage at the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1963. In 1963 she made her U.S. debut as Leila in Les Pêcheurs de perles with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera, and thereafter sang with various U.S. opera companies. In 1970 she made her first appearance at Milan’s La Scala as Massenet’s Manon. On March 19, 1971, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Mimi, and continued to sing there regularly in subsequent years. In 1976 she made her debut at London’s Covent Garden as Nedda. She sang at the Vienna State Opera in 1977. In 1986 she appeared as Maria Stuarda in Zürich. In 1990 she portrayed Luisa Miller in Trieste. She appeared in recital at the Salle Gaveau in Paris in 1994. Among her other roles were Gluck’s Eurydice, Pamina, Luisa Miller, and Gounod’s Juliet.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire