50 Lei Maria Cebotari

Maria Cebotari, born in Chișinău in 1910, became one of the most celebrated dramatic sopranos of the 1930s and 40s, performing lead roles at the Berlin State Opera and the Vienna State Opera before her death from cancer in 1949 at age 39. Richard Strauss personally cast her in the world premiere of his opera Der schweigsame Frau in 1935 — a production the Nazis almost cancelled because the librettist Stefan Zweig was Jewish.

This coin marks the centenary of her birth. Moldova has issued relatively few silver commemoratives, and the Cebotari issue targets a niche of opera collectors well outside the usual national audience.