Labia, Fausta
Labia Maria, *14 February 1880 Verona, †10 February 1953 Malcesine (on Lake Garda), Italian singer (soprano) and teacher, sister of Fausta. She owed her vocal education to her mother, Cecilia. She made her debut in 1905 in Stockholm as Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème, and from 1907, she performed at the Komische Oper in Berlin, among others, as Tosca, Carmen, Marta in The Lowlands by d’Albert and Salome in the opera by R. Strauss. In 1908–09, she sang at the Manhattan Opera House in New York, in 1912, she was heard at La Scala, and in 1913 at the Paris Opera. During the war, she spent a year in an Italian prison, suspected of spying for Germany. After the war, she returned to her interrupted singing career, taking part in, among others, the first European performance of Puccini’s Cloak as Giorgetta (Rome 1919), and then performed the same role in Buenos Aires. In 1922, she sang the part of Felice in the first performance of Wolf-Ferrari’s The Four Ruffians on the stage of La Scala. In 1936, she ended her singing career. She also worked as an educator; in 1930–34, she taught at the conservatory in Warsaw. She published Guardare indietro: che fatica (Verona 1950).