Emma Turolla (7 September 1858 – 6 June 1943) was an Italian opera singer and voice teacher.
Early life Emma Turolla was born in Turin, the daughter of Remigio Turolla and Angelica Turolla-Cravero. Her parents were also opera vocalists. She trained as a singer under Daniele Antonietti, the father of actors Hilda Anthony and Vernon Steele.Emma Turolla, ES&DF Opera.
Career Turolla performed at London's Covent Garden in 1879, and again in 1880."The London Lyric Stage" New York Times (May 20, 1880): 2. She was with the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon for the 1881-1882 season."Turolla" Musical Courier (June 15, 1881): 434. She was a regular performer in Budapest, under contract at the Hungarian Royal Opera House from 1883 to 1886. She was popular in Prague in 1883,Philipp Ther, Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-century Central Europe (Purdue University Press 2014): 20–22. and in Vienna in the 1883–1884 season."Music in Vienna" The Monthly Musical Record (June 1, 1883): 133. In 1887, she toured South America.Emma Turolla, La Voce Antica. She was especially known for singing the title role in Aida and Leonora in Il Trovatore, among other parts. "La voce della Turolla è sonora e potente, senza stridi nè durezze, uniforme dai bassi agli acuti" (The voice of Turolla is sonorous and powerful, without harshness or hardness, uniform from bass to treble), commented one critic of the time."Da Livorno" Il corriere di Firenze (23 Agosto 1881): 2. She endorsed Soden Mineral Pastilles in newspaper advertisements in 1888.Advertisement, The Standard (18 January 1888): 4. via Newspapers.com In 1908, she began a singing school in Milan."Milan" Musical Courier (February 26, 1908): 18.
Personal life Emma Turolla left the stage in 1888, after a romantic disappointment.H. Ellen Browning, A Girl's Wanderings in Hungary (Longmans, Green 1897): 230. She was reported to have died in 1889 in Budapest.Untitled news item, Pall Mall Gazette (1 January 1890): 5. via Newspapers.com"Notes and News" The Graphic (18 January 1890): 22. via Newspapers.com But two years later, newspapers mentioned her marriage to an Italian cavalry officer, Captain De Capitani D'Arzago, in Milan."Notes and News" The Graphic (April 23, 1892): 17. via Newspapers.com"Nouvelles Diverses" Le Ménestrel (17 Avril 1892): 127. She died in 1943, aged 84 years, in Milan.
References
External links Photograph of Emma Turolla, in the collection of the Theatermuseum, Vienna. Another photograph of Emma Turolla , mae in London in about 1879, in the Fondo Antonio Cervi, Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio.