Ileana Cotrubaș (1939–2026) was a Romanian lyric soprano born in Galați who began singing in a Romanian Radio children’s choir at nine and made her stage debut at the Bucharest Opera in 1964 as Yniold in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. She won the ’s-Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition in 1965 and the ARD International Competition in Munich in 1966, joined the Frankfurt Opera in 1968, and made her Glyndebourne debut in 1969 and Covent Garden debut in 1971. Her international breakthrough came in 1975 when she replaced Mirella Freni as Mimì in La bohème at La Scala, arriving shortly before the performance; she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Mimì in 1977 and subsequently sang roles including Gilda, Violetta, Ilia, Tatiana and Micaëla. Her major recordings included Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Herbert von Karajan (1977), Verdi’s Rigoletto with Carlo Maria Giulini (1979), La traviata with Carlos Kleiber (1980), Carmen with Claudio Abbado (1977), and Manon with Michel Plasson (1982). She retired from public performance in 1990, after which she devoted herself to teaching and masterclasses, including work with younger singers such as Angela Gheorghiu; Ileana Cotrubaș died in Vienna on 20 August 2026, aged 87.
![Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (Excerpts) [Wiener Staatsoper Live]](https://cdn-images.dzcdn.net/images/cover/4ea800288b5fa381c540734efaa8c9d2/120x120-000000-80-0-0.jpg)
