The Miracle of Rosa Ponselle

How a reluctant and untrained singer became America’s favorite prima donna

WRITTEN BY Stephen Oles

The year was 1918. Enrico Caruso, the Metropolitan Opera’s biggest star, had chosen a newcomer to be his leading lady. Her name was Rosa Ponselle, she’d just turned 21, and her debut sent critics scurrying for adjectives. She “made a sensational impression and was sensationally received.” She showed “incomparable charm and dramatic ability.” Her voice was “rich, sensuous, … capable of all the lights and shades of operatic expression.”

Who was this musical marvel? Most of the

Met’s singers were foreign-born, and all had learned their art and musicianship in Europe. Few in that opening night audience knew that Rosa had never been to Europe. She’d also

RIGHT Ponselle poses as Mathilde in “William Tell,” a French-language opera by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. The opera was revived in America at the Metropolitan Opera in 1923, starring Ponselle and Italian tenor Giovanni Martinelli.