Graziella Sciutti

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Graziella Sciutti (April 17, 1927 – April 9, 2001) was an Italian soprano who became a famous opera singer, later a teacher and producer. She was born in Turin to a musical family and studied with Ginevra Marinuzzi and at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She began making radio broadcasts in 1948 and gave her concert debut in Venice in 1949. Her stage debut came in 1951 at Aix-en-Provence, where she sang Elisetta in Il matrimonio segreto and a role in The Telephone, discovering her talent for opera.

In 1954 she sang Rosina in The Barber of Seville and soon appeared at major opera houses, including Covent Garden (her 1956 debut as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera), Salzburg, Vienna, and San Francisco. She was known as “the Callas of the Piccola Scala” for her expressive acting and confident technique, and she was especially celebrated for Mozart soubrette roles such as Susanna, Despina, and Zerlina (notably in the 1959 Don Giovanni recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini).

Sciutti also created the title role in Sauguet’s Les caprices de Marianne in 1954. Although some critics felt her voice could sound light, she was admired for her technique and stage presence. Later she turned to teaching and production: she staged Poulenc’s La voix humaine at Glyndebourne in 1977, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Covent Garden and San Francisco, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute in Koblenz in 1985. She taught at London’s Royal College of Music, where one of her pupils was Anna Maria Panzarella. Sciutti died in Geneva in 2001. Her recordings include Mozart roles such as Susanna, Despina, Zerlina, Rosina, and other works, reflecting her lively, engaging style.