Teresa Berganza studied music at the Madrid Conservatory with Gerardo Gombau and Jesús Guridi, and singing with Lola Rodriguez Aragon, a pupil of Elisabeth Schumann. She won first prize for singing at the conservatory in 1954 and made her concert début in Madrid during the following year. Her rise to operatic stardom was swift: during 1957 she gave her first recital at the Madrid Ateneo, sang Dulcinea opposite Boris Christoff in a radio performance of Massenet’s Don Quichotte in Milan, participated in a film version of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, also for RAI, and made her operatic début at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Dorabella/Così fan tutte. The following year she appeared at the Piccolo Scala in Milan as Isolier/Le Comt...