Italian soprano Daniela Dessì, known for her performances at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, died on Saturday evening in Brescia, Italy, after a short battle with colon cancer. She was 59. Daniela Dessì (14 May 1957 – 20 August 2016) Dessì completed her studies at the Conservatory of Parma and the Accademia Chigiana of Siena, Italy. After winning the first prize at the International Competition organized by Italy's RAI TV in 1980, she debuted with the comic opera La serva padrona by Pergolesi. Her international career took her to a variety of opera theatres, singing under the direction of orchestra conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado and the Metropolitan Opera's James Levine. Dessì's 2008–2009 season began with Tosca in Florence, where she performed an encore of "Vissi d'arte", the first encore at Teatro Comunale di Firenze since Renata Tebaldi's "Amami Alfredo" in 1956. She later performed at the Verdi Theatre in Trieste, and also performed Adriana Lecouvreur in Palermo, Puccini's La fanciulla del West in Seville, Manon Lescaut in Warsaw, Madama Butterfly in Hanover and Aida in Verona and Cagliari. She closed the season in Barcelona with Turandot. In January 2009, she opened the season of recital at La Scala. On 20 August 2016 Dessì died of cancer at the age of 59. -- Wikipedia
