Happy 79th birthday soprano Kiri Te Kanawa.

On this day in 1831 Vincenzo Bellini’s La sonnambula premiered in Milan

Birthday anniversaries of composer Oscar Straus (1870); tenor Fernand Ansseau (1890); soprano Gina Cigna (1900); conductors Julius Rudel (1921), Sarah Caldwell (1924) and Lorin Maazel (1930); and bass-baritone Norman Treigle (1927).