Florentine soprano Jolanda Meneguzzer passed away on June 7, 2020, at the age of 90.

Born in 1930, Meneguzzer was in her early teens during the final years of World War II. In an interview with William Burnett, she said of the experience: “During the war I never stopped studying. It was a very difficult period, because Florence was occupied by the Germans, and was repeatedly bombed by the Allies, resulting in both death and destruction, but we children also studied with the utmost commitment in schools through good times and bad.”

Her professional debut came in 1957, in the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino’s production of Monteverdi’s “Orfeo.” Meneguzzer performed with the festival for the following eight years.

In 1962, she made her American debut in San Francisco as Maria in Donizetti’s “La Figlia del Regimento.”

The following year, she took on the role of Lisa in Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” alongside Joan Sutherland. While Meneguzzer shied away from fame, she made a small number of appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, doing “La Boheme” as well as “Rigoletto.”