#gabbi paini

Leonilda Gabbi Paini sings Norma(1903)

Born in Parma in 1863, Leonilda Gabbi Paini was Adalgisa Gabbi’s younger sister. She made her debut in 1882, at the age of nineteen, and enjoyed a substantial twenty-year career, making notable appearances in operas such as Don Carlo,Aida, and Die Walküre. The present recording was made in 1903, when she chose to retire from the stage at the age of forty. Despite clear evidence of vocal decline, it preserves an interesting echo of what must, in its prime, have been a glorious voice trained in the grand nineteenth-century manner. Leonilda Gabbi Paini died in Parma in 1919.