“Singing is my desire, my need, my life. Finding myself on a desert island, I would sing there too ... A person that has climbed a mountain range and does not see a peak higher than the one on which he is, has no future. I would never agree to be in his place. "These words are not just a beautiful declaration, but a real program of action, which the outstanding Italian singer Galli-Curci followed throughout her creative career.

... Amelita Galli-Curci as a coloratura singer, perhaps, was the best. Perfectly smooth, figurable sound served as a wonderful material for the artist to create a variety of filigree-perfected images. No one has performed passages in operatic arias and cadenzas with such instrumental fluency and brilliance - without the slightest tension that could let out technical difficulties of the sung piece to the listeners.

The art of Galli-Curci forced contemporaries to recollect the great virtuosos of the 19th century and say that even composers who created bel canto during the "golden age" could hardly imagine a better interpreter of their works. “If Bellini himself had heard such an amazing singer as Galli-Curci, he would have applauded her endlessly,” wrote the Barcelona newspaper "El Progreso" in 1914 after the performances of "La Somnambula" and "Puritans".

The singer was distinguished by her extensive repertoire. Although it was based on Italian opera music - works by Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Leoncavallo, Puccini - she also performed brilliantly in operas by the French composers - Meyerbeer, Bizet, Gounod, Thom, Massenet, Delibes.

For the birthday of the remarkable opera singer, we have prepared a musical selection, digitized from gramophone records ("HIS MASTER'S VOICE". THE GRAMOPHONE CO., LTD.) that are stored in the museum "Collection" Sound Library.