• Up for auction is a RARE! Rosina Galli Hand Signed 3 Page Letter.  This item is authenticated By Todd
• Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.

ES-6899

Rosina

Galli (1892 – April 30,

1940) was an Italian ballet dancer,

choreographer, ballet mistress, and dance teacher. After early years in

Italy, she moved to the US, where she was associated with the Metropolitan Opera in

New York City. Prima ballerina at La Scala Theatre Ballet, and

the Chicago Ballet, she was

also the première danseuse at

the Teatro di San Carlo and

the Metropolitan Opera. Galli was born in Naples, where her father was a

lawyer. She studied dance at the Teatro di San Carlo's

ballet school, becoming the company's première danseuse at the

age of 14. When she was offered the première danseuse

position at La Scala Theatre Ballet, the family moved to Milan. She debuted in

1910, at the age of eighteen, dancing in Pietro Micca and Ballo

Excelsior of Luigi Manzotti. In 1911, her father and two brothers escorted

Galli to Genoa, from where Galli and her mother proceeded to Chicago, US. Galli performed first as soloist, and then

as prima ballerina of the Chicago Ballet. In 1913, she was hired by the Metropolitan Opera House.

Though she sported a petite figure, characterized as elfish,

Galli demonstrated a rigorous technique and performed powerful pirouettes, continuing to dance there until 1931. Her

partner at the Met was Giuseppe Bonfiglio. Her studies in America were

under Luigi

Albertieri. In 1919, she began teaching dance at the Met, also

serving as ballet mistress until 1935. As a teacher, she applied the

strict program from her days at La Scala, teaching the Cecchetti method. Helen Tamiris, who formed the School of American Dance in

1930, was a pupil under Galli. Her expanded responsibilities included

choreography, and in that respect, Galli is credited for over 100 offerings at

the Met, such as Carmen (1924), La traviata (1925), and Merry Mount (1934).

It was at the Met where Galli met her future husband, Giulio Gatti-Casazza,

former superintendent at La Scala and director of the Met since 1908. Initially

she was his mistress; they married in 1930 at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic

Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. When

her husband retired in 1935, the couple returned to Italy, residing at a villa

on Lake Maggiore. She

died in Milan on April 30, 1940. Gatti, 23 years older, died the following

September.