PictureFrom the 1985 film "Il Bacio di Tosca"
Sara Scuderi was born December 11th 1906 in Catania, Sicily.  She made her debut in 1925 as Leonore in Il Torvatore and sang in smaller Italian houses before she was engaged by the Italian Opera in Holland in 1926.  There she became so popular that in Italy she was called "la diva Olandese".  She toured Cuba, Venezuela and Central America before returning to Holland in 1931.  She was engaged in a seven-year contract with Milan's Teatro Alla Scala, where she made a brilliant debut as Fiore in L'Amore dei Tre Re in 1936.   In the same year she sang in the world premiere of Malipiero's Giulio Cesare at Genoa Opera.  She sang with the  most famous male artists of her time, including Benjamino Gigli and Galliano Masini.  During World War II she remained in Italy.  She sang as a guest at the Cambridge Theatre in London in 1948.  She returned to Holland in 1952, appearing as Mimi in La Bohème.  She taught in Milan and spent her last years at the Casa di Riposo. 

She died on December 24th 1987.                                                                                                                      
My dear friend,
Signora Milla kindly let me read your letter so I felt the pleasure and emotion of being remembered by you after many years!  Thank you with all my heart!  I have written emotion because those beautiful times in Holland appeared before my eyes and all the beautiful operas we sang together, including Il Trovatore!  Do you remember?

I am glad to know that you are well, as am I, thank Heaven.  And here you find me very well thanks to our great composer Giuseppe Verdi.  My mother has been ill for 16 years and you can imagine the financial cost of her care and for 6 years in a nursing home.  But I've done it with all my heart because my mother is a wonderful person (you remember her, don't you?) and deserved any sacrifice by me. 

And now here I am in G Verdi's home;  I am feeling very well and I bless our great maestro and benefactor.  I hope God has him in glory! 

I think that even where you are, my dear friend, is a nice place (despite wild animals).  Are there any?

I would be very happy if you could find the time to answer my letter.  In the meantime I send you thousands of beautiful wishes for Christmas and the new year.  With a sisterly hug I say goodbye to you.  Sara Scuderi".
The two sides of the one Scuderi record in my collection!
Sara Scuderi in the excellent (and very moving) 1985 film Il Bacio di Tosca, filmed at Casa Di Riposo in Milan.  An impromptu Tosca in a corridor!