She was born in Città di Castello (PG) in 1826 (her father came from Bagnacavallo) and died in 1894 in Ville d’Avray, nearby Paris. She was a great opera singer. 
Maria Anna Marzia Alboni was born in Città di Castello (in the central Italy province of Perugia) on March the 6 in 1826.
Marietta’s father was of Bagnacavallo origins and worked as a lieutenant in the customs officers’ army (the Italian “Finanza”). Due to his work, Eustachio Alboni moved in the area of Forlì, where he met and married Gertrude Mazzetti; afterwards they moved to other cities, amongst which Perugia, where the little Marietta was born. Soon after her birth, the Alboni family moved to Cesena for good.
Here, Maria enchanted the whole town with her beautiful voice; thanks to the generosity of some citizen she had the chance to study in Bologna and attend the important “Liceo Musicale” of the city, where she was taught also by the musician Gioacchino Rossini.
After her debut in 1842 in Bologna and with her performance, few months later, at the Milanese theatre “La Scala”, her fame grew considerably, while from 1846 she started a tounée which toured Europe first, and then America.
She died in 1894 in Ville d’Avray, nearby Paris, and she’s still buried in the cemitery of Père Lachaise.
Marietta Alboni is considered one of the most important and famous opera singers, and probably the greatest contralto of all times.
