The following is extracted from Volume III of the 1986 edition of South African Music Encyclopedia (J.P. Malan, ISBN 0 19 570363 4)
MABELLA OTT-PENETTO (née Mabel Lewin, official change of name 3 April 1936), contralto, born 11 July 1910 in Oudtshoorn, died 31 May 2006 in Zürich
Mabella Ott-Penetto went to school at Oudtshoorn, after which she studied under Eveline Fincken at the College of Music in Cape Town (1929-32) and obtained a licentiate and several awards.
Towards the end of 1932 she studied in Berlin and in 1933 her training was continued in Vienna where she made her debut in 1934 as a Lieder singer. During the same year she also celebrated her theatre debut in Zürich when she interpreted Czipra in Der Zigeunerbaron. She subsequently (1937) made Zürich her home when she married Louis Ott. Highlights of her career were in 1941 and 1954 when she interpreted works composed and directed by the composers Felix Weingartner and Aaron Copland and again in 1963 when she sang the five Wesendonck Lieder at the Villa Wesendonck during the Zürich celebrations commemorating the birth of Richard Wagner. Other important occasions were her participation at the Music Festivals held in Gstaad (1944) and Prades (1958), and her interpretations in performances of Sorotschinsky Fair (Mussorgsky) in 1947 and of Orfeo (1955) and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse (1960), both by Monteverdi.
During the years in Switzerland she visited South Africa to undertake, in all, six concert tours and to act as a soloist in symphonic programmes. In 1947 she sang Amneris in Aida (Verdi) and Dalila in Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns) during John Connell's opera season in Johannesburg.
