Rina Massardi

Romarina Massardi (21 June 1897 – 23 July 1979) was an Italian-Uruguayan canto lírico singer, actress, and film director, responsible for the first South American lyric film, released in 1938. Romarina Massardi was born in Virle Treponti, a town near Brescia, the daughter of an Italian marble worker who moved the family to Montevideo to work on the construction of the Legislative Palace. She studied lyrical singing there, began to sing professionally, and performed in different venues of the country. In 1923 she received a scholarship to study in Milan, and then at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

In 1930 she began her career as a soprano, performing at the Solís Theatre in Montevideo and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 1934 she traveled to the United States, recorded her trip with a 16 mm camera, and conceived the project of writing a script and making a film. Upon returning to Montevideo she began the realization of this plan. The result would be released four years later.

It was her only movie, although she continued to film trips and family events until 1951. She continued her performing career until 1956 and then devoted herself to singing lessons. She died in 1979 at age 82.