Above: Loretta Di Franco as Countess Ceprano in RIGOLETTO, with Placido Domingo as the Duke of Mantua
Soprano Loretta Di Franco has passed away; from her Met debut as a Page in TANNHAUSER in 1961 to her farewell in 1995, she sang over 900 performances with The Met in New York City and on tour.
A native New Yorker, Ms. Di Franco had started out at The Met as a member of the chorus. In 1965, she entered and won the Met Auditions, thereafter taking on a vast number of roles in seven languages; I saw her in many of them. She sang both Barbarina and Marcellina in NOZZE DI FIGARO, Pousette in MANON, Berta in BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, Giannetta in ELISIR D’AMORE, both Papagena and the 1st Lady in ZAUBERFLOETE, Lisa in LA SONNAMBULA, both the Sandman and the Dew Fairy in HANSEL AND GRETEL, Marianne Leitzmertzin in ROSENKAVALIER, Zerlina, Frasquita, Xenia in BORIS GODUNOV, both Woglinde and Gerhilde in the RING Cycle, and Kate Pinkerton. She sang Violetta in some student matinees of TRAVIATA, and appeared in two Janacek operas at The Met: JENUFA and KATYA KABANOVA.
Upon retiring from singing, Loretta continued to work at The Met as a language coach.
Loretta Di Franco appears in videos of several Met productions, but the only free-standing excerpt I could find is the LUCIA sextette from the Met’s 100th Anniversary Gala in 1983: she sings Alisa, joining Robert Nagy (Arturo), Julien Robbins (Raimondo), Roberta Peters (Lucia), Dano Raffanti (Edgardo), and Brian Schexnayder (Enrico). Sir Richard Bonynge conducts. Watch and listen here.
Oberon's Glade 