Opera Singer. A lyric soprano, she is remembered for her virtually definitive interpretation of the courageous Minnie in Puccini's American-themed "La Fanciulla del West". Raised in Bologna, she studied locally, made her October 4, 1947 professional bow at Teatro di Pesaro as a Samaritan Woman in Riccardo Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini", and in 1948 had her first major role at Bologna's Teatro Duse as Mimi from Puccini's "La Boheme". Over the years she earned praise in all the major cities of Italy including Turin, Rome, Venice, and Verona as well as in Zurich, Vienna, Cairo, Stuttgart, Dublin, and elsewhere, among her roles Leonore in Verdi's "La Forza del destino", Nedda of Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci", Maddalena from Giordano's "Andrea Chenier", Violetta of Verdi's "La Traviata", Santuzza in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana", and the title leads of Puccini's "Tosca" and "Madame Butterfly". Gigliola made her 1955 La Scala Milano debut replacing the notoriously unreliable Maria Callas as Maddalena and shortly thereafter brought down the house there as Minnie, partnered as frequently by Franco Corelli, whom she respected professionally but despised personally, as Dick Johnson and Tito Gobbi as Jack Rance. (By contrast, she liked Mario del Monaco). Also in 1955 she was hired to sing Minnie in Chicago, filling in for Eleanor Steber who was reportedly on an extended drunk, though the opportunity for an American career was denied her by a duplicitous manager who, unbeknownst to her, was representing a rival artist. Gigliola was Mere Marie for the January 26, 1957 La Scala world premiere of Francis Poulenc's "The Dialogues of the Carmelites", continued her European career until leaving the Verona stage in 1979 following a performance as Santuzza in which she was joined by Carlo Bergonzi, and retired to her home city where in later years she ran a competition for young singers. At her death from the effects of advanced age she could be heard on numerous 'live' recordings, on complete studio preservations of "Fanciulla" and "Tosca", and on a DVD of a 1956 La Scala film of "Fanciulla" featuring Corelli and Gobbi. Some sources list her birth year as 1927.