Bidu Sayão
Encyclopedia
Bidú Sayão was a Brazil
ian opera
soprano. One of Brazil's most famous musicians, Sayão was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City from 1937 to 1952.
, Rio de Janeiro. Her father died when she was five years old and her mother struggled to support her daughter's costly pursuit of a singing career. At the age of only eighteen, the gifted Bidú Sayão made her major opera debut in Rio de Janeiro. Her acclaimed performance led to an opportunity to study with the famous Elena Teodorini, first in Brazil and then in Romania; and then to study with the renowned Polish
tenor and tutor, Jean de Reszke
, in Nice
. During the mid 1920s and early 1930s, she performed in Rome
, Buenos Aires
, Paris
, as well as in her native Brazil. While at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, she met impresario Walter Mocchi (1870–1955). After his wife, soprano Emma Carelli
, died in 1928, the two became romantically involved and were married. However, it did not last and in 1935 Sayão married the Italian baritone, Giuseppe Danise (1883–1963).
In 1930, she debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan
, and in the next year she sang a successful Juliette, in Gounod
's Roméo et Juliette
, at the Paris Opera. In the same year, she gained a great success with her debut at the Opéra Comique as Lakmé
. She soon became one of the leading lyric coloratura sopranos in Europe, especially in Italy and France. Her repertoire included Lucia di Lammermoor
, Amina in La sonnambula
, Elvira in I puritani
, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
and Cecilia in Il Guarany
, among other roles.
on December 30, 1935. Her U.S. operatic debut followed not long thereafter, on January 21, 1936, when she and Danise sang in the penultimate production of the Washington National Opera
, a semi-professional company not associated with its modern namesake; the performance, of Léo Delibes
's Lakmé
, was marred by a fractious dispute in which the orchestra musicians declined to play without payment in cash, and ultimately the performance was accompanied by a portable organ, with some singers appearing in costume and some in street clothes owing to a similar demand by the stage hands and costume man. Altogether more dignified was her performance a few months later with the New York Philharmonic
at Carnegie Hall
singing La damoiselle élue by Debussy
. Her performance was under the baton of Arturo Toscanini
, who would become her greatest supporter and lifelong friend. She sang her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera
as Manon
on February 13, 1937, replacing the Spanish
soprano Lucrezia Bori
. The critics, including Olin Downes of the New York Timeshttp://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40811FA38541B728DDDAD0994DA405B878FF1D3, raved about her performance and within a few weeks she was given the lead in La traviata
, followed soon thereafter by Mimì in La bohème
. She also contributed to the Mozart
revival at the Metropolitan Opera
, becoming the pre-eminent Zerlina (Don Giovanni
) and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro
) of her generation.
As the favorite singer of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
, she had an artistic partnership with him that lasted many years and made a number of recordings of his compositions, including a famous recording of the Bachiana Brasileira
No. 5.
Bidú Sayão and her husband Giuseppe Danise purchased an oceanfront property in Lincolnville, Maine
. After fifteen years with the Metropolitan Opera, she gave her last performance in 1952, choosing to retire from opera while still at the top of her form. For the next two years she was a guest performer throughout the U.S., but in 1957 she decided to retire completely from public performance; two years after that she made her final recording as the soprano soloist on Villa-Lobos's world premiere stereo recording of his cantata Forest of the Amazon with the composer conducting the Symphony of the Air.
Following the death of her husband in 1963, Bidú Sayão lived a quiet life at her home in Maine
. She returned to visit Brazil a last time in 1995, for a tribute to her during the Carnival
in Rio de Janeiro
, and died a few years later at the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine
. Her ashes were scattered across the bay in front of her home.
Although Brazilians have always been strong patrons of the opera, at the time Bidú Sayão was struggling to launch her career there was little in the way of government assistance for aspiring singers; throughout her life she spoke about this lack of support. Following her last visit to her homeland, the government prepared plans to honor her memory. In 2000 the Bidu Sayão International Vocal Competition
was established to promote Brazilian operatic talent through a world-class competition.
Bidú Sayão's portrait hangs in the lobby at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
soprano. One of Brazil's most famous musicians, Sayão was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City from 1937 to 1952.
Life and career
Bidú Sayão was born Balduína de Oliveira Sayão to a cultured family in BotafogoBotafogo
Botafogo is a beachfront neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of Mundo Novo, Dona Marta and São João .- History :Botafogo was named after João Pereira de Sousa Botafogo, who was responsible for the...
, Rio de Janeiro. Her father died when she was five years old and her mother struggled to support her daughter's costly pursuit of a singing career. At the age of only eighteen, the gifted Bidú Sayão made her major opera debut in Rio de Janeiro. Her acclaimed performance led to an opportunity to study with the famous Elena Teodorini, first in Brazil and then in Romania; and then to study with the renowned Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
tenor and tutor, Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw, , was a Polish tenor. Renowned internationally for the high quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing, he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century....
, in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
. During the mid 1920s and early 1930s, she performed in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, as well as in her native Brazil. While at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, she met impresario Walter Mocchi (1870–1955). After his wife, soprano Emma Carelli
Emma Carelli
Emma Carelli was an Italian operatic soprano who was particularly associated with the dramatic soprano roles of the verisimo repertoire and the works of Richard Wagner....
, died in 1928, the two became romantically involved and were married. However, it did not last and in 1935 Sayão married the Italian baritone, Giuseppe Danise (1883–1963).
In 1930, she debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, and in the next year she sang a successful Juliette, in Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, at the Paris Opera. In the same year, she gained a great success with her debut at the Opéra Comique as Lakmé
Lakmé
Lakmé is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Delibes wrote the score during 1881–82 with its first performance on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Set in British India in the mid 19th century, Lakmé is based on the 1880 novel...
. She soon became one of the leading lyric coloratura sopranos in Europe, especially in Italy and France. Her repertoire included Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, Amina in La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
, Elvira in I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
and Cecilia in Il Guarany
Il Guarany
Il Guarany is an opera ballo composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes, based on the novel O Guarani, written by José de Alencar. The libretto was written by Antonio Scalvini and Carlo D'Ormeville.-Performance history:...
, among other roles.
Metropolitan Opera
Bidú Sayão made her U.S. debut in a recital at Town Hall in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on December 30, 1935. Her U.S. operatic debut followed not long thereafter, on January 21, 1936, when she and Danise sang in the penultimate production of the Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera (1919–1936)
For the present company of the same name, see Washington National Opera.The Washington National Opera Association, founded in 1919 as "Washington Community Opera", was a low-budget opera company, comprising professional principals supported by amateurs, active in Washington, DC until 1936; it was...
, a semi-professional company not associated with its modern namesake; the performance, of Léo Delibes
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
's Lakmé
Lakmé
Lakmé is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Delibes wrote the score during 1881–82 with its first performance on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Set in British India in the mid 19th century, Lakmé is based on the 1880 novel...
, was marred by a fractious dispute in which the orchestra musicians declined to play without payment in cash, and ultimately the performance was accompanied by a portable organ, with some singers appearing in costume and some in street clothes owing to a similar demand by the stage hands and costume man. Altogether more dignified was her performance a few months later with the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
singing La damoiselle élue by Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
. Her performance was under the baton of Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, who would become her greatest supporter and lifelong friend. She sang her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
as Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
on February 13, 1937, replacing the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
soprano Lucrezia Bori
Lucrezia Bori
Lucrezia Bori was a Spanish operatic singer, a lyric soprano.-Biography:Lucrezia Bori was born in Valencia, Spain. Her real name was Lucrecia Borja y González de Riancho and her family were reputed to be descended from the Borgias.Her voice had a unique timbre and transparent quality unlike any...
. The critics, including Olin Downes of the New York Timeshttp://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40811FA38541B728DDDAD0994DA405B878FF1D3, raved about her performance and within a few weeks she was given the lead in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, followed soon thereafter by Mimì in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. She also contributed to the Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
revival at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, becoming the pre-eminent Zerlina (Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
) and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
) of her generation.
As the favorite singer of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
, she had an artistic partnership with him that lasted many years and made a number of recordings of his compositions, including a famous recording of the Bachiana Brasileira
Bachianas Brasileiras
The Bachianas Brasileiras constitute a series of nine suites by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945...
No. 5.
Bidú Sayão and her husband Giuseppe Danise purchased an oceanfront property in Lincolnville, Maine
Lincolnville, Maine
Lincolnville is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,042 at the 2000 census. Lincolnville is the mainland terminal for state ferry service to Islesboro.-History:...
. After fifteen years with the Metropolitan Opera, she gave her last performance in 1952, choosing to retire from opera while still at the top of her form. For the next two years she was a guest performer throughout the U.S., but in 1957 she decided to retire completely from public performance; two years after that she made her final recording as the soprano soloist on Villa-Lobos's world premiere stereo recording of his cantata Forest of the Amazon with the composer conducting the Symphony of the Air.
Following the death of her husband in 1963, Bidú Sayão lived a quiet life at her home in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. She returned to visit Brazil a last time in 1995, for a tribute to her during the Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, and died a few years later at the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine
Rockport, Maine
Rockport is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census. Rockport is a popular tourist destination and art colony.-History:...
. Her ashes were scattered across the bay in front of her home.
Although Brazilians have always been strong patrons of the opera, at the time Bidú Sayão was struggling to launch her career there was little in the way of government assistance for aspiring singers; throughout her life she spoke about this lack of support. Following her last visit to her homeland, the government prepared plans to honor her memory. In 2000 the Bidu Sayão International Vocal Competition
Bidu Sayão International Vocal Competition
The Bidu Sayão International Vocal Competition is a singing competition held at the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil named after that country's most famous opera singer, Bidu Sayão. It is a competition for up-and-coming young singers and as such has an age restriction, currently open to singers of...
was established to promote Brazilian operatic talent through a world-class competition.
Bidú Sayão's portrait hangs in the lobby at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.