Maria Caniglia (5 May 1905 – 16 April 1979) was one of the leading Italian dramatic sopranos of the 1930s and 1940s.Caniglia was born in Naples and studied at the Music Conservatories of Naples with Agostino Roche. She made her professional debut in Turin as Chrysothemis in Elektra in 1930. The same year she sang Magda in Respighi's La campana sommersa in Genoa and Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin in Rome and made her debut at La Scala in Milan as Maria in Pizzetti's Lo straniero. She sang regularly at La Scala until 1951 in the leading dramatic soprano roles in opera, such as Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Aida, Andrea Chénier, Tosca and Adriana Lecouvreur. She was particularly successful in roles from the latter verismo school.