Emilie Tagliana

Emilie Tagliana was an Italian coloratura soprano who created two roles in Bizet's Carmen a world apart. Trained at the Milan Conservatory and by Giovanni Battista Lamperti, she went on to Paris and Odessa before further study in Vienna under Hans Richter, where she created Mercédès in the house's 1875 Carmen; Hans Makart painted her portrait there that year. A prestigious 1877 appointment took her to the Berlin Court Opera, where she created the title role of Carmen at its December 1880 premiere and was made a Prussian Kammersängerin. She retired to Italy in 1883; her later years are undocumented.