'',
Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa, may 1942 (photo with dedication). (1952) Born in
Catania,
Sicily, Scuderi made her debut at the
Teatro Lirico Coccia in
Novara playing Leonora in
Il Trovatore (November 1925). Scuderi studied under Matteo Adernò. She was engaged in a seven-year contract with Milan's
Teatro Alla Scala, where she received high praise and partnered with the most famous male artists of her time, including
Beniamino Gigli and
Galliano Masini. Her interpretations of
Tosca are particularly celebrated, with the 1937 production at the
Terme di Caracalla, with Beniamino Gigli and Luigi Montesanto being among the best known. Additionally, she premiered the operas
Il volto della Vergine (Ezio Camussi) and
Giulio Cesare (
Malipiero). Scuderi sang in the most important theatres of the day, both in Italy and abroad, particularly in
Amsterdam, where she signed a seven-year contract and was a major star. She toured several times with
La Scala to Brazil and Argentina, where she sang
Tosca with
Giuseppe Lugo. She retired from the stage at the end of the 1940s. For the latter part of her life, she lived at the
Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer
Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. Film director
Daniel Schmid used Scuderi as a central character in his capture of the essence of the retirement home for these former glories in his
Il Bacio di Tosca, in 1984. Scuderi died three years later, in 1987. ==References==