Verdi’s early operas star several terrifying women, including Odabella in “Attila,” sung at Seattle Opera in 2012 by Ana Lucrecia Garcia. In her entrance aria, this powerful warrior women, destined to chop off the head of Attila the Hun, explains to us what kind of woman she is:
“But we are women of Italy;
Our bosoms are girt with steel.
You shall always find us
on the reeking field of battle.”
Carlo Montanaro conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera.