Italian soprano Renata Scotto (center) receives an honorary doctorate from Provost and Dean Ara Guzelimian (left) and VP and Dean of Academic Affairs Karen Wagner at Julliard’s 104th commencement ceremony at Alice Tully Hall on May 22, 2009, in New York City. Scotto has died aged 89, the mayor of her hometown in Italy said Wednesday, Aug. 16, as fellow musicians paid tribute to “one of the greatest opera singers of all time.” MICHAEL LOCCISANO / Getty Images via AFP
ROME—Italian soprano Renata Scotto has died aged 89, the mayor of her hometown said Wednesday, Aug. 16, as fellow musicians paid tribute to “one of the greatest opera singers of all time.”
“A unique singer, a great musician, a great artist, a great woman has died,” the mayor of Savona, Marco Russo, wrote on Facebook, praising Scotto as “cultured, refined, generous, simple.”
She died at her home in New York, the ANSA news agency said.
Born on Feb. 24, 1934, in northwest Italy, Scotto studied singing in Milan and began her career in 1952 in Savona in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata.
She would go on to grace the world’s greatest opera houses, from Milan to London and New York.
“I am heartbroken by the death of Renata Scotto, one of the greatest opera singers of all time and a dedicated teacher of young singers,” tenor Placido Domingo said on social media. /ra
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