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Ileana Cotrubas
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, arri...
