Sad news: Renata Scotto has died at 89

Italian newspaper sites are carrying sad news of the death last night of one of the last acknowledged opera divas.

Renata Scotto reigned supreme at the Met through the James Levine era. She was untouchable as Manon Lescaut and imposing in much else.

After making her debut in Savona at 18 in 1952 as Violetta in La traviata, she reached La Scala before the year was out and never looked back. The Metropolitan Opera made her wait until 1965 to make her debut, as Madama Butterfly.

From the late 1990s, she developed a second career as a director. Furiously intelligent, she tolerated no fools.

She enjoyed a long devoted marriage to Lorenzo Anselmi, a former violinist at La Scala who became her manager. ‘Tonight an extraordinary and wonderful woman left us,’ writes the head of Savona municipality.

UPDATES: Tributes pour in for Scotto