'', Teatro dell'Opera, Rome, 1950s (photo with dedication). The singer performed Violetta at the Teatro dell'Opera of Rome, debuting in 1954 and cementing her career in the role, becoming a "house prima donna" until 1976. Zeani made her professional debut as Violetta in
La traviata at the
Teatro Duse in Bologna in 1948 as a last-minute replacement for
Margherita Carosio. It was to become her signature role. one she sang 648 times during the course of her career. She initially sang in Italian regional opera houses but also began appearing abroad. In 1950 and 1951 she sang in Egypt in private concerts for
King Farouk as well as in a series of operas in Cairo and Alexandria. She also sang Violetta in Geneva in 1952 and at London's
Stoll Theatre in 1953. She made her Florence debut as Elvira in
I puritani in 1952, replacing
Maria Callas, who had withdrawn from the production after two performances. It was during the
Puritani performances that she first met her future husband, the Italian bass
Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. They met again in 1956 when she made her
La Scala debut as Cleopatra in Handel's
Giulio Cesare, opposite Rossi-Lemeni as her Giulio Cesare. He soon proposed and the couple married in 1957. A year later their son Alessandro was born. Zeani and Rossi-Lemeni made their home in Rome and would appear together in thirteen more operas. Zeani sang 69 roles in the course of her career in a wide-ranging repertoire. She sang in important revivals of Verdi's early and now rarely performed opera
Alzira (Rome, 1970) and belcanto operas such as Donizetti's
Maria di Rohan (Naples 1965) and Rossini's
Otello (Rome, 1968), but she also sang in the world premieres and early performances of several 20th-century operas. She created the roles of Giannina in
Jacopo Napoli's
Un curioso accidente (Bergamo, 1950), Blanche in Poulenc's
Dialogues of the Carmelites (Milan, 1957), Alissa in
Raffaello de Banfield's
Alissa (Geneva, 1965) and Irene in
Renzo Rossellini's ''L'avventuriero'' (Monte Carlo, 1968). She also sang
Mary Vetsera in the first staging of
Barbara Giuranna's
dodecaphonic opera
Mayerling (Naples, 1960), a role written expressly for her. Her other roles in 20th-century works include Magda Sorel in
The Consul and Eunomia in
Adriano Lualdi's
Il diavolo nel campanile (both under
Tullio Serafin at the
Maggio Musicale in Florence) and multiple performances of
La voix humaine in the 1970s. By the time she had begun her career as a voice teacher in 1980, Zeani had basically retired from the stage, but she returned in 1982 for her last opera performance, Mother Marie in
Dialogues of the Carmelites at the
San Francisco Opera. ==Teaching career and later life==