Who is Maria Cebotari?
Maria Cebotari (original name: Ciubotaru, 10 February 1910 – 9 June 1949) was a Bessarabian-Romanian lyric coloratura soprano. She was widely known as a singer by the mid 1930s and noted in particular for her wide range of repertoire. Beniamino Gigli stated that Cebotari was one of the greatest female voices he had ever heard. Maria Callas was compared to her, and Angela Gheorghiu named Maria Cebotari among the artists she admires the most. With thousands of people in attendance, her funeral was "one of the most imposing demonstrations of love and honor any deceased artist has ever received" in the history of Vienna.
