death_date death_place years_active birth_place name background birth_date image article_title birth_name occupation
1 april 1865 blevio , italy 1823-1854 saronno , italy giuditta pasta solo_singer 26 october 1797 giuditta pasta.jpg giuditta pasta
 giuditta angiola maria costanza negri opera singer -lrb- soprano -rrb-
giuditta pasta

giuditta angiola maria costanza pasta -lrb- née negri ; 26 october 1797 -- 1 april 1865 -rrb- , was an italian soprano considered among the greatest of opera singers , to whom the 20th-century soprano maria callas was compared .
in fact , susan rutherford , in her examination of the art of pasta , makes a specific comparison with callas : for the impact of corporeality on vocal timbre and delivery , and in the absence of pasta 's own explanations of its effect , we might turn to another distinctive `` attrice cantante '' -lrb- and one who sang much of pasta 's repertory -rrb- from a quite different period , maria callas .
she also argued that gesture and facial expression must precede word in order to create the appropriate vehicle -lrb- in terms of the shaping of resonators -rrb- for the histrionically specific formation and colouring of sound - something made apparent in her own filmed performances .
rutherford , continues by pointing out pasta 's singularity on the opera stage : in the 1820s ... the artwork was the performance .
and the performance was essentially of a singer 's individual characteristics and talents : the way his or her particular qualities -- both vocal and histrionic -- were given accent and shape within the compositional frame .
this notion is most aptly illustrated by the italian `` attrice cantante '' giuditta pasta .
her career began in 1815 and spanned a little more than twenty-five years : during its middle period , from 1822 to 1836 , she was the acknowledged diva `` del mondo '' .
but it is n't merely fame that makes pasta interesting : ... pasta 's singularity is measured rather by the tone and extent of the debates her celebrity provoked , by her influence on the operatic stage , and by the timing of her career at the transition from rossinian opera to the works of bellini and donizetti -lrb- with all the stylistic ramifications this implied -rrb- .
no other singer during that period attracted as much intellectual discussion , or was regarded as of such significance in the articulation of theories around operatic practices .
for such reasons alone , pasta is deserving of critical attention .
