Nina Morgana
Nina Morgana was an American soprano, a protégée of Enrico Caruso, who sang with the Metropolitan Opera for fifteen seasons, from 1920 to 1935. She was of Italian descent.
Early life
Nina Morgana was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Sicilian immigrants Calogero and Concetta Morgana. She was a child performer in the "Venice in America" exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. In 1906, she sang at a concert in Buffalo to benefit the survivors of the San Francisco earthquake that year. In 1908, Morgana auditioned for the great operatic tenor Enrico Caruso while he was in Buffalo to perform a concert. Caruso, believing her voice had great potential, sent a letter on her behalf to the retired soprano Teresa Arkel, who accepted the young Morgana as a student at her estate in Milan. Morgana studied voice with Arkel from 1909 to 1913.The soprano's siblings included Dante J. Morgana, M.D., a prominent eye surgeon based in Buffalo, Charles Morgana, a Ford Motor Company executive selected personally by Henry Ford, and David Morgana, who became a Trappist monk.
Career
During her vocal training in Italy, Teresa Arkel recommended her to conductor Tullio Serafin for the small role of the Forest Bird in a production of Siegfried at the Teatro Dal Verme. She appeared in the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier at La Scala in 1911. From 1917 to 1920, Morgana appeared frequently with Caruso during his North American concert tours. She was with the Chicago Opera in the 1919–1920 season. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1920 to 1935, making her debut as Gilda in Rigoletto. Her other best-known roles at the Met included Amina in La Sonnambula, Nedda in Pagliacci, Musetta in La bohème, and Micaela in Carmen. She also appeared in concert and gave live radio recitals during the 1920s.In 1926, Morgana sued Chadwick Pictures for a silent film called The Midnight Girl, in which a singer character named "Nina Morgana" is portrayed by actress Dolores Cassinelli as "debauched" and "passé".