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Stella Roman (23 August 1904 – 12 February 1992) was a soprano whose career brought her leading roles in Italy and the United States.
It was as Aida that she also made her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1941, and she continued to sing there throughout the 1940s in the Italian repertoire: Il trovatore, Otello, Un ballo in maschera, Cavalleria rusticana, La Gioconda, Tosca. She often shared these roles at the Met with Zinka Milanov. She left the Met in 1950 after the arrival of Rudolf Bing as its general manager.
Stella Roman had a particular association with Richard Strauss, who chose her to sing the role of the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten for its Italian première at La Scala in 1940. She later went to visit Strauss at Pontresina in 1948 to study with him the Four Last Songs and the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and it was as the Marschallin that she ended her career at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples. She retired in 1953 after having married for the second time; her operatic career had lasted for 19 years.
Her voice was admired for its warm lyrical quality and its ability to deliver high pianissimi and vibrant climaxes, but her technique was said to be "unorthodox and sometimes hectic".Schauensee, Max de. "Stella Roman", in Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 29 September 2006),
After her retirement, she took up painting and her work was exhibited. She died of respiratory failure at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York at the age of 87.
In addition, a recording of assorted opera arias with Artur Rodziński conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, along with excerpts from Verdi's Aida with Karl Kritz conducting (1945–50), was released on Eklipse in 1997.
Roman also reported that she had made some recordings of Romanian folk-songs with her compatriot George Enescu, but it is not certain whether these were ever released. She also recorded as a soloist in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy in May 1945. (Columbia Masterworks set mm-591)
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