 Her operatic début was, by her own account, at Bologna in 1934 in the role of Maddalena in "Andrea Chénier", (though other accounts mention a performance in Piacenza in 1932).She sang Tosca at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples which inaugurated a long partnership with the tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi.In 1937 she was offered a three-year contract at Rome Opera House by Tullio Serafin, and she found herself making a sudden début as Aida.