Teresa Berganza

Teresa Berganza was born in Madrid in March 1933 and studied piano and voice at the Madrid Conservatory under Lola Rodríguez de Aragón. She made her concert début in 1955 and her operatic début in 1957 at Aix-en-Provence as Dorabella in *Così fan tutte*. Her flexible mezzo-soprano voice, classical training, and command of the Italian and French bel canto tradition made her one of the leading Mozart and Rossini singers of her generation.

Her central roles were Cherubino in *Le nozze di Figaro* (the role of her Covent Garden and Metropolitan Opera débuts), Dorabella, Cenerentola, Rosina in *Il barbiere di Siviglia*, and the title role in *La Cenerentola* — a Rossini coloratura mezzo repertoire she effectively defined for the post-war generation. She was also a notable Carmen — her 1977 Edinburgh Festival performance under Claudio Abbado became one of the central productions of the work — and worked extensively as a recitalist, particularly in Spanish song. Her long partnership with the pianist Félix Lavilla shaped the recorded recital legacy.

Berganza taught at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid from 1985 onwards and was elected to the Royal Spanish Academy in 1994. She retired from staged opera in 1992 and died in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in May 2022. Music Preserved’s archive includes a substantial range of her Mozart, Rossini and recital work.