Gina Cigna: soprano

Genevieve Cigna was born in 1900 in Paris to a well-to-do family. Her father, of Italian ancestry, was a general in the French army. As a child, Gina started her musical career at the piano, undertaking studies at the Paris Conservatory. In 1923 she married Maurice Sens, a tenor, who had the honor of discovering his new wife's extraordinary voice.

Taking up studies with the great French soprano Emma Calve, she started singing as a mezzo but  was determined to become a soprano. By sheer will she clawed her way above the A, half step by half step.      Cigna then travelled to Italy on her teacher's advice. There she  auditioned for Toscanini at La Scala. He was astonished that she accompanied herself, and instantly recognised her as a great soprano verdiano. He immediately sent her to  work with many of the greatest vocal coaches of the day, including Rosina Storchio and Giannina Russ.  She returned to La Scala to make her debut  in 1927 under her married name of Ginette Sens, attracting little attention.

Following futher study, she toured the povincial Italian houses, gaining major successes in Carpi and Nice, before moving to the bigger centers of Verona and Florence. She returned to La Scala under the name Gina Cigna and scored two great triumphs, as Donna Elvira in 'Don Giovanni' (with an extraordinary cast, including Stabile, Arangi-Lombardi, Favero, Schipa, Baccaloni and Pasero!) on December, 19, 1929; and as Elisabeth in 'Tannhauser' with the brilliant Lina Bruna-Rasa as Venus and Antonio Melandri (January 1930.)       For the next twenty years no star shone brighter in the opera world than Cigna's. A very attractive woman with a powerful voice, she sang in every major house in every major city, including London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Vienna, Chicago, in South America, and of course,  in every major house in Italy. She was chosen to sing at Covent Garden on the Coronation Day of George VI,  over England's own Eva Turner (a great scandal ensued); she was sent to the creator of the role of Floria Tosca, Hariclea Darclee, to learn the part; she sang at La Scala every season of her career, and was considered a 'Norma', 'Aida', 'Gioconda' and 'Turandot' without equal; she was chosen to sing at the  centenary of the death of Bellini in his home town of Catania; she made the first ever complete recordings of both 'Norma' and 'Turandot'. In the twenty or so years of her stellar career, she sang 400 performances of 'Tosca' and the role of Turandot 500 times. To this day she  remains unrivalled as the parts greatest interpreter.

She sang two world premieres. Respighi's 'La Fiamma' in 1934 and Panizza's 'Bizancio' in Buenos Aires in 1939. She was also the first to sing Strauss's 'Daphne' in Italy in 1942, as well as Kostelnicka in 'Jenufa' in 1945.

On September 24, 1947 the unthinkable happened and Cigna was involved in an auto accident while on her way to sing 'Tosca' in Vicenza. The iron-willed diva climbed out of a shattered window, was accompanied by the fire brigade and police to the venue, sang the performance, suffered a major heart attack as a result, spent 43 days in bed and on the 43rd day was told that she would never sing again. Cigna claimed that this moment was the end of her life.  She lived for another fifty years however, teaching for a large part of this time  and producing students the likes of Louis Lima, Ghena Dimitrova and Lucia Valentini-Terrani.

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