Kruszelnicka-Biccioni Salomea, *11 September 1873 Biała (near Tarnopol), †16 December 1952 Lviv, Ukrainian opera singer (lyric-dramatic soprano), teacher. Since childhood, she sang (later also conducted) in the parish choir and the Ukrajinśka Biesida choir in Tarnopol and the Bojan Music Society in Lviv. She studied singing with W. Wysocki at the conservatory in Lviv, from which she graduated with distinction in 1893. Soon she made her debut at the Lviv Opera as the mezzo-soprano part of Leonore in Donizetti’s La Favorite. In the same year, she went to further studies with F. Crespi in Milan. During her first stay in Italy (1895–96), she appeared in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Meyerbeer’s Huguenots. In 1897, she went to Chile with a troupe of Italian artists. In 1898–1902, she performed permanently in Warsaw and as a guest in St. Petersburg, Odessa, Paris, Naples, Brescia, Genoa and Milan. In 1904, she took part in one of the first performances of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Her performances at La Scala (in 1906 under the direction of A. Toscanini) brought her particular fame, which resulted in further artistic journeys (Egypt, Spain, Portugal, Argentina). In 1910, she settled permanently in Italy. In the 1920s, she abandoned the opera stage and performed only chamber repertoire; During this time, she toured the United States and Canada. In 1939, she went to Lviv; the outbreak of World War II prevented her from returning to Italy, so she took up teaching work. In 1946, she became a professor at the conservatory in Lviv. She performed for the last time in 1945 in a concert for the university’s students’ association.
Excellent vocal conditions (her vocal ambition reached 3 octaves), dramatic talent and great musical memory enabled Kruszelnicka-Biccioni to master and perform a very rich repertoire (approx. 50 opera parts, both lyrical and dramatic). In Poland, she became famous for her interpretations of parts in Moniuszko’s operas (Halka, The Countess, The Haunted Manor) and her roles in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Żeleński’s Goplana. She has performed abroad, among others, in Il Trovatore, Aida, Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Bizet’s Carmen, Ponchielli’s Gioconda, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. Particularly interesting were her portrayals of characters in the works of Wagner (Brunhilde, Isolde), R. Strauss (Salome, Electra) and I. Pizzetti (Phaedra). She was an excellent interpreter of the chamber repertoire, especially works by Monteverdi, and Gluck, songs by Mozart, Franck, Wolff, de Falla, Respighi, and Mussorgsky. Her program always included Ukrainian folk songs (often in her own arrangement) and songs by Ukrainian composers: S. Ludkiewicz, D. Syczyński, N. Lysenko, who dedicated several songs to her. Contemporaries compared Kruszelnija-Biccioni’s talent to the craftsmanship of F. Szalapin, E. Caruso and M. Battistini.
Literature: J. Korolewicz-Waydowa Sztuka i życie. Mój pamiętnik, Wrocław 1958; S. Pawliszyn Znamienitaja piewica, “Sowietskaja Muzyka” 1952 No. 2; E. Arnosi, J. Dennis S. Krusceniski, “Record Collecter” 1969.
