Maria Callas’s Annina dies at 95
mainLuisa Mandelli, who sang Annina opposite Callas in Luchino Visconti’s production of La traviata at La Scala, has died just short of her 96th birthday.
Mandelli, who spent her later years in the Casa Verdi for retired singers, made her debut as a page in Rigoletto in 1953. She was a company stalwart for the next three decades.
She was booked to sing Annina in a new Traviata in Berlin in 2015, but cancelled.
(Considering the abysmal production not surprising)
Luisa Mandelli did not cancel, she was sent home after one rehearsal.
Because, big surprise, she sounded like an old woman.