Dal Monte Toti, born Antonietta Meneghelli, *27 June 1893 Mogliano Veneto, †26 January 1975 Pieve di Soligo (Treviso), Italian coloratura soprano and actress. She began her musical education at the Liceo Musicale B. Marcello in Venice, studying piano, and later pursued vocal studies with Barbara Marchisio. She made her debut in 1916 at La Scala as Biancafiore in Francesca da Rimini by R. Zandonai. She initially performed lyrical roles (including in Loreley by A. Catalani and Madama Butterfly by G. Puccini) in Bologna, Genoa, Palermo, and at Milan’s Teatro Lirico and Teatro Dal Verme. However, the true nature of her voice (soprano leggero) and her artistic potential became fully evident in the role of Gilda (Rigoletto by Verdi) during her performance in Turin in 1918. This was confirmed by her great success in the same role at La Scala in 1922 under the baton of A. Toscanini. La Scala engaged her for ten consecutive seasons. At the same time, in 1924–25 she was a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, debuting in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor by G. Donizetti, and she also performed in Chicago until 1928. She also performer in Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Vienna, Berlin, and Warsaw, as well as in Melbourne and Tokyo. She was acclaimed as one of the finest interpreters of Italian Romantic bel canto opera, and G. d’Annunzio called her “the nightingale of Italy.” During an Australian tour in 1928, she married the distinguished tenor E. de Muro Lomanto whom she divorced three years later. In the later years of her career, she sang leading roles in operas by Puccini (La Bohème, Madama Butterfly) and Pietro Mascagni (Lodoletta). She retired from the operatic stage in 1943, devoting herself to teaching and acting. As an actress, she mainly appeared in comedies by C. Goldoni written in the Venetian dialect. She last appeared in Warsaw in 1961 in such a role. She wrote her autobiography Una voce nel mondo (Milan, 1962), later translated into Russian as Golos nad mirom (Moscow, 1966).
