Background
Born in Saint St. Petersburg, Russia, Petina was the daughter of General Stephen Petin, Czar Nicholas II"s personal escort, and a goddaughter of the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna.
Born in Saint St. Petersburg, Russia, Petina was the daughter of General Stephen Petin, Czar Nicholas II"s personal escort, and a goddaughter of the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna.
She was called the "floperetta queen" by critic Ken Mandelbaum. Her debut role with the Met was as Schwertleite in Richard Wagner"s Die Walküre (the second part of the acclaimed Ring Cycle) on December 29, 1933. She went on to appear as Maddalena in Giuseppe Verdi"s Rigoletto with January Peerce, the Marquise of Berkenfeld in Donizetti"s The Daughter of the Regiment with Lily Pons, Mallika in Léo Delibes"s Lakmé, Feodor in Boris Godunov, Annina in Richard Strauss"s Der Rosenkavalier, and the title role in Bizet"s Carmen.
Additional credits include thirty-five Met performances as Berta in Rossini"s The Barber of Seville and, despite being a contralto, the high soprano role of Rosalinde in a 1944 national tour of Johann Strauss, Junior."s operetta Die Fledermaus.
Petina appeared as herself in Andrew L. Stone"s film There"s Magic in Music (1941). Asked how to pronounce her name, she told The Literary Digest the first syllable should be stressed: PEH-ti-na.
(Charles Earle Funk, What"s the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936).