Italian opera diva Renata Tebaldi dies

Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, one of the great post-Second World War opera divas who Arturo Toscanini said had the "voice of an angel", has died, a family friend said.

She was 82.

She died in the Republic of San Marino where she had moved several months ago to be close to the sea, said a family friend, who asked not to be named.

Tebaldi performed in opera houses from Italy to the United States and was as admired for her dramatic stage presence as the purity of her voice.

Her breakthrough came in 1946 when she auditioned in Milan for the great conductor Arturo Toscanini.

When she made her debut at the city's La Scala opera house later than year, the maestro dubbed her "The Voice of an Angel".

Singing the soprano part in Giuseppe Verdi's Te Deum, the concert marked the reopening of the theatre after the end of the Second World War. It also branded Tebaldi in Italian minds as part of the country's post-war renaissance.

She went on to perform at London's Covent Garden, the San Francisco Opera and appeared regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York taking the lead roles in La Boheme, Madam Butterfly, Tosca and La Traviata.

"I started my career at 22 and finished it at 54, 32 years of success, satisfaction and sacrifices. Singing was my life's scope to the point that I could never have a family," she wrote in a preface to her official website.

Tebaldi was born in the Italian seaside town of Pesaro on February 1, 1922. Stricken with polio at the age of 3, she was unable to partake in strenuous activities and instead became interested in music.

In her early teens, Renata began studying music at the Conservatory of Parma.

"I started singing when I was a young girl but my family wanted me to study piano but my overwhelming need to express myself with my voice made me choose the art of singing," she once told her fans.

Tebaldi was a Knight Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and had received a Commander, Order of Arts and Letters from France.