Viorica Cortez
Encyclopedia
Viorica Cortez is a noted Romanian-born mezzo-soprano
, later French by naturalisation. Starting her operatic and concert career in the mid-1960s, she went on to become one of the most prominent female performers of the '70s and '80s. An example of professional longevity, she is present on some of the most prestigious European opera scenes.
. Cortez enjoyed an artistic milieu in her parents' house, finding her passion and intense desire of studying music. Later on, she was received in the Iasi Conservatory and, for her final three years of academic studies, she switched to Bucharest's "Ciprian Porumbescu
" Conservatory (today the University of Music). In Iasi, at only 17, Cortez made her debut in the alto part of Beethoven
's Ninth Symphony. She then toured the towns of Moldavia for years, almost exclusively in vocal-symphonical repertoire.
, Viorica Cortez was the student of Arta Florescu, a post-war Romanian soprano and professor (besides Cortez, some of her important apprentices were Marina Krilovici
, Eugenia Moldoveanu, Maria Slătinaru-Nistor, Leontina Văduva
and even Angela Gheorghiu
). She vividly encouraged the young mezzo-soprano to consider international competitions. Cortez took her advice and applied for the International "George Enescu" Contest in Bucharest (1964), where she ranked only fourth. The same year, she won the International Singing Contest in Toulouse
, along with Romanian fellow tenor Ludovic Spiess. In Le Monde
, the well-known critic Jacques Lonchampt praised her dark, velvety mezzo, her artistry and technique, as well as her glittering beauty on the stage. This victory at Toulouse was immediately followed by a contract in the city's noted Théâtre du Capitole
for the year to come. In the final gala, Cortez sang Leonora's aria from Donizetti's La favorita, which was to become one of her signature concert and recital pieces.
Also in 1964, Cortez graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory, making her debut in a staged opera production - Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice. Next year, she won the Great "Kathleen Ferrier
" Prize at the s'Hertogenbosch International Singing Contest. She made her debut in Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila opposite Ludovic Spiess in Toulouse the same year, and she returned as Carmen
one year later. Cortez then established herself as one of the most respected and recognized young Romanian opera singers, though in her native country she appeared mostly in concerts and recitals. After being hired by the Romanian National Opera in Bucharest in 1967, this changed, as she toured the country and Europe (the former Yugoslavia, France, Greece and especially Ireland), making her debut in Ambroise Thomas
' Mignon
, Giuseppe Verdi
's Don Carlo, Aida
and Il trovatore
, Gaetano Donizetti
's La Favorita and Jules Massenet
's Werther
.
In 1967, she won the Grand Prize and the Golden Medal of the International "George Enescu
" Contest in Bucharest, ending her competition itinerary. Already an established name in Romania, she toured France alongside Arta Florescu (in Aida) and made her Chorégies d'Orange
debut (as Amneris from Aida). The same year, she auditioned for the first and only time in her career for Sir Georg Solti
, who was looking for a Carmen in the London Royal Opera House's new production. Apparently, after hearing Cortez, he declared: "This IS the Carmen we've been looking for. We found HER". Her debut came in 1968 and, although the critics were not unanimously favorable to this newcomer, the performances were hailed as one the season's most notable events. For Cortez, that meant not only the launching in a new dimension of her professional career, but also an encounter with Sandor Gorlinsky, the legendary agent who added her to his star-studded roster.
More capital debuts came. While maintaining a particular relationship with French opera houses (Toulouse, Rouen, Bordeaux, Avignon, Nice) and still a member of the Bucharest Opera, Cortez sang her first performances in Barcelona
(Gran Teatre del Liceu, La favorita, 1969), Vienna
(Staatsoper, Don Carlo, 1969), Salzburger Festspiele (Carmen, 1969), Naples (Teatro di San Carlo
, Norma
and Aida opposite Leyla Gencer
) and Paris (Grand Opera, Carmen, 1970).
Cortez's American debut occurred in 1970. She performed in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, then finally New York, where she first appeared alongside Martina Arroyo in Verdi's Messa da Requiem in Carnegie Hall. Both La Scala and the Metropolitan scheduled her, the first in Samson et Dalila, the other in Carmen. In Milan, succeeding Shirley Verrett's Dalila, Cortez was asked by the opera management and conductor Georges Pretre to consider an extra performance, an exceptional decision of the theatre following the enormous success of her first appearance with the house. In New York, Richard Tucker, her Don Jose for the debut night, hailed her as one of the most attractive and convincing Carmens he has ever sung with.
From then on, Cortez's career covered every major opera house in the world. Claudio Abbado invited her for the Verdi Requiem at La Scala, along with Plácido Domingo
and Nicolai Ghiaurov
. The celebrated Bulgarian bass was her partner for Massenet's freshly revived opera, Don Quichotte, both in Paris and Chicago, the Parisian mise en scène
being assigned to Peter Ustinov
. In Chicago, Cortez was a commanding and electrifying Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda opposite Montserrat Caballé
(1973). The friendship and mutual respect between the two divas represented a milestone in Cortez's career. For Norma and Maria Stuarda, as well as for Don Carlo and Il Trovatore, the Catalan soprano and the Romanian mezzo-soprano were scheduled together in Lisbon, Naples, Nice, Vienna, Cologne, Madrid and La Scala (Norma, 1974) and at the Met (Il Trovatore, 1973).
In 1972, Viorica Cortez acceded to the Arena di Verona "hall of fame", interpreting Amneris opposite the Radames of Franco Corelli. In the following years, she would become a favourite of the notoriously picky audience of what is Italy's most demanding opera festival.
In 1975, having become a French citizen, she returned to her long-missed Bucharest for a recital at the Atheneum.
Cortez felt at home both in the Italian and French repertoire. She portrayed a rapturous Dalila (Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisabona - 1975, Grand Opera, Paris - 1978), a powerful, intense Azucena (Metropolitan, New York - 1973, 1977, 1978, Grand Opera, Paris - 1975, Staatsoper, Vienna - 1973, 1974, 1976, Teatro alla Scala, Milan - 1978), a fragile Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, almost always with Alfredo Kraus
, who named her his "absolute favourite Charlotte", a dramatic Eboli, notably in Vienna, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Bilbao and for La Scala Bicentennial - 1978, a delicate and interiorised Marguerite in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust (Paris, Verona), and a sovereign and shining Amneris (La Scala, Milan - 1973, Arena di Verona - 1977, Metropolitan, New York - 1979).
Nevertheless, her repertory widened every year. She was a shockingly tempestuous Klitemnestra in Richard Strauss' Elektra opposite Birgit Nillson (Rome, 1971). She felt no boundaries or shyness in jumping from one composer to another, mixing Monteverdi (L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Naples, 1976) with Giordano (Fedora, Bologna, 1977), Stravinsky (Oedipus Rex, La Scala, Milan, 1972, 1973, 1980) with Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov, Paris, 1980), Rossini (Tancredi, Martina Franca, 1976) with Lalo (Le Roi d'Ys, Nancy, 1979).
At the beginning of the '80s, Cortez's voice seemed to be slowly but surely deteriorating. Critiques and objections became more and more frequent. Still, as the contracts were signed five years in advance, she had to sing. She was forced to cancel some L'Hérodiade performances in Avignon, some others in Marseille, and she searched for support besides her family and her vocal trainer. Recovering, she returned to the stage after a couple of months, more cautious, more balanced, decided to abandon the tremendous turmoil of the past. She became quite selective in arranging her schedule. For almost four years, she was rarely in Europe, due to her long-term Metropolitan engagements (Samson et Dalila - 1981, Il Trovatore, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Adriana Lecouvreur - 1982, 1983, 1984). She starred in some, star-directed productions in Paris (Nabucco, alongside Grace Bumbry and Sherrill Milnes - 1979, Jorge Lavelli's Oedipus Rex - 1979, Joseph Losey's Boris Godunov - 1980 or Sonja Frissell's Un ballo in maschera, alongside José Carreras - 1981).
In 1984, she was a vehement Klitemnestra in Regina Resnik's San Francisco Opera production of Elektra. She sang in Denver, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Bagdad, Tokyo, Osaka, and Amsterdam, but she also returned to stages such as L'Arena di Verona (La Gioconda and Aida - 1988), Grand Opera, Paris (Herodias in Richard Strauss' Salome in the fascinating mise-en-scene of her dear Jorge Lavelli), Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona (Il Trovatore, La Gioconda, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Il Matrimonio Segreto - 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989), Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Un Ballo in maschera with Luciano Pavarotti - 1989). Still in 1989, she awed Paris once again, this time as La Star in Zygmund Krause's eponymous opera, directed by Jorge Lavelli
. The former editor in chief of Opera International, Sergio Segalini, called her "diva assolutta".
Equally important, Cortez was able to sing in her native country again, after 20 years of exile. She appeared in numerous benefit galas and concerts and gave recitals in Bucharest and Iasi, as well as opera performances ("Carmen" in Iasi - 1991, "Il Trovatore" at the National Opera in Bucharest - 1992).
's Andrea Chénier
in Seville
), determined to pursue her career. Her comeback was emotionally highlighted by the Spanish press. Subsequently, as a confirmation of the very special relationship between the singer and the Spanish audience, she concentrated most of her career in Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, and Bilbao, without neglecting offers from Italy or France. At the Gran Teatre del Liceu, she added to her repertoire a role she had been dreaming of since the 80s: The Old Countess from Tchaikovsky
's The Queen of Spades
, which she reprised in Madrid (Teatro Real, 2004). She later sang Buryovka in Janáček
's Jenůfa
in Barcelona (2005), where she also opened the 2007-2008 season as la Comtesse/Madelon. Again in 2008, Viorica Cortez made her return to the Monte-Carlo Opera (Starenka Buryovka in Janáček's Jenůfa). She also reprised one of her best recent characters, Madame de Croissy, in Les Dialogues des Carmelites, for the opening of the 2008-2009 season at Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, in the famed production of Robert Carsen. The performances were highly acclaimed by the press. Later on, she was to debut with Teatro del Maggio in Florence (Cavalleria rusticana). In 2009, Viorica Cortez starred in the creation of a new opera (Une affaire etrangere) in Montpellier. Cortez is scheduled to return on stage in Cavalleria Rusticana for the 2010-2011 season of the Marseille Opera.
or Giulietta Simionato
, and since her big Covent Garden break (1968), she relentlessly deepened the character, almost identifying herself with Mérimée's and Bizet's heroine. The critics applauded her creamy, very extended voice, able to cover all three registers, her exquisite technique, her refinement in the French way of punctuating, as well as her breathtaking beauty and charisma on stage. With Carmen, Viorica Cortez entered the exclusive club of opera stars. She sang the role at La Scala (1972, with Giuseppe di Stefano), Metropolitan Opera
(1971, 1979), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1968, 1969, 1974), Grand Opera, Paris (1970), Staatsoper, Vienna (1970, 1971, 1973, 1976), Arena di Verona (1975, 1980), but also in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Salzburg, Bilbao, Oviedo, Rome, Trieste, Bologna, Chicago, Naples, Toulouse, Beograd, Piacenza, Rio de Janeiro, Pistoia, Montreal, Lille, Avignon, Málaga, Genova, Philadelphia, Strasbourg, San Antonio, Seattle, Lisbon, Messina, Lausanne, Bucharest, etc. Her last "Carmen" was in her native Iaşi, in 1991.
by the world-famous film music composer Nino Rota
. In 1977, Cortez recorded in Luxembourg her one and only aria recital, which won the Grand Prize of Académie Lyrique du Disque in France. It was later released as a CD. The lack of official recordings kept Cortez one step behind her illustruous colleagues Fiorenza Cossotto, Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett or Elena Obraztsova. Fortunately, the last decade brought a flourishing of in-house live recordings: Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio (Bologna, 1977), Aida (Vienna, 1973, Denver, 1986), Elektra (Rome, 1971), Norma (Naples, 1973, Caracas, 1975), Maria Stuarda (Chicago, 1973), Il trovatore (Paris 1975, New York 1978, 1981), La favorita (Genova, 1976), Don Carlo (Milan, 1978), Adriana Lecouvreur (New York, 1983), Gioconda (Verona, 1988), Suor Angelica (Madrid, 1993), Zaza (Palermo, 1994), La fille du régiment" (Madrid, 1996), Les contes d'Hoffmann (Orange, 2002), Jenůfa (Barcelona, 2005).
, former manager of the Paris Opera and Opéra Comique and finally to the Romanian-born historian Adolf Armbruster. From the first marriage, the singer has one daughter - Catalina.
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
, later French by naturalisation. Starting her operatic and concert career in the mid-1960s, she went on to become one of the most prominent female performers of the '70s and '80s. An example of professional longevity, she is present on some of the most prestigious European opera scenes.
Early life
With a well-determined Spanish origin, Viorica Cortez is the eldest of three sisters. She was born in Bucium, a village in the vicinity of IaşiIasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
. Cortez enjoyed an artistic milieu in her parents' house, finding her passion and intense desire of studying music. Later on, she was received in the Iasi Conservatory and, for her final three years of academic studies, she switched to Bucharest's "Ciprian Porumbescu
Ciprian Porumbescu
Ciprian Porumbescu was a Romanian composer born in Şipotele Sucevei in Bukovina . He was among the most celebrated Romanian composers of his time; his popular works include Crai nou, Trei culori, Song for the 1st of May, Ballad for violin and piano, and Serenada...
" Conservatory (today the University of Music). In Iasi, at only 17, Cortez made her debut in the alto part of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Ninth Symphony. She then toured the towns of Moldavia for years, almost exclusively in vocal-symphonical repertoire.
Studies and international recognition
In BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Viorica Cortez was the student of Arta Florescu, a post-war Romanian soprano and professor (besides Cortez, some of her important apprentices were Marina Krilovici
Marina Krilovici
Marina Krilovici is a German opera soprano of Romanian birth. She first studied with Mme Vrabiescu-Vatianu, Arta Florescu, Petre Ştefănescu Goangă, Aurel Alexandrescu in Bucharest, then with Maria Caniglia and Luigi Ricci in Rome. Debut in 1966 at the National Opera of Bucharest as Donna Anna in...
, Eugenia Moldoveanu, Maria Slătinaru-Nistor, Leontina Văduva
Leontina Vaduva
Leontina Vaduva [Văduva] is an acclaimed Romanian soprano. She studied at the Bucharest Conservatory and with Ileana Cotrubaş, and debuted in the title role of Manon at Toulouse, in 1987...
and even Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano opera singer. Since her professional debut in 1990, she has sung as soprano leading roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Milan's La Scala, and many other opera houses in Europe and the United States...
). She vividly encouraged the young mezzo-soprano to consider international competitions. Cortez took her advice and applied for the International "George Enescu" Contest in Bucharest (1964), where she ranked only fourth. The same year, she won the International Singing Contest in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, along with Romanian fellow tenor Ludovic Spiess. In Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, the well-known critic Jacques Lonchampt praised her dark, velvety mezzo, her artistry and technique, as well as her glittering beauty on the stage. This victory at Toulouse was immediately followed by a contract in the city's noted Théâtre du Capitole
Théâtre du Capitole
The Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse is an opera house and ballet company located within the main administration buildings, the Capitole, of the city of Toulouse in south-west France....
for the year to come. In the final gala, Cortez sang Leonora's aria from Donizetti's La favorita, which was to become one of her signature concert and recital pieces.
Also in 1964, Cortez graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory, making her debut in a staged opera production - Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice. Next year, she won the Great "Kathleen Ferrier
Kathleen Ferrier
Kathleen Mary Ferrier CBE was an English contralto who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the classical works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar...
" Prize at the s'Hertogenbosch International Singing Contest. She made her debut in Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila opposite Ludovic Spiess in Toulouse the same year, and she returned as Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
one year later. Cortez then established herself as one of the most respected and recognized young Romanian opera singers, though in her native country she appeared mostly in concerts and recitals. After being hired by the Romanian National Opera in Bucharest in 1967, this changed, as she toured the country and Europe (the former Yugoslavia, France, Greece and especially Ireland), making her debut in Ambroise Thomas
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
' Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Don Carlo, Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
and Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La Favorita and Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
.
In 1967, she won the Grand Prize and the Golden Medal of the International "George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
" Contest in Bucharest, ending her competition itinerary. Already an established name in Romania, she toured France alongside Arta Florescu (in Aida) and made her Chorégies d'Orange
Chorégies d'Orange
The Chorégies d'Orange is a summer opera festival held each year in August in Orange located about seventy miles northwest of Marseille in southern France...
debut (as Amneris from Aida). The same year, she auditioned for the first and only time in her career for Sir Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
, who was looking for a Carmen in the London Royal Opera House's new production. Apparently, after hearing Cortez, he declared: "This IS the Carmen we've been looking for. We found HER". Her debut came in 1968 and, although the critics were not unanimously favorable to this newcomer, the performances were hailed as one the season's most notable events. For Cortez, that meant not only the launching in a new dimension of her professional career, but also an encounter with Sandor Gorlinsky, the legendary agent who added her to his star-studded roster.
More capital debuts came. While maintaining a particular relationship with French opera houses (Toulouse, Rouen, Bordeaux, Avignon, Nice) and still a member of the Bucharest Opera, Cortez sang her first performances in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
(Gran Teatre del Liceu, La favorita, 1969), Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(Staatsoper, Don Carlo, 1969), Salzburger Festspiele (Carmen, 1969), Naples (Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
, Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
and Aida opposite Leyla Gencer
Leyla Gencer
Leyla Gencer, or Ayşe Leyla Çeyrekgil was a world-renowned Turkish operatic soprano.Known as "La Diva Turca" and "La Regina" in the opera world, Gencer was a notable bel canto soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, and had a repertoire...
) and Paris (Grand Opera, Carmen, 1970).
1970s career
By 1970, Cortez was being considered by virtually every major opera house, but for a Romanian artist, getting out of the country was a major challenge, often insurmountable. The lack of a passport and endless difficulties with the authorities were obstacles not only for her, but for every Romanian performer who hoped for an international career. Many contracts were annulled because of this issue. In the winter of 1970, Viorica Cortez was in Naples for a series of performances of Samson et Dalila opposite Mario del Monaco. She did not return to Romania, deciding to continue her artistic destiny abroad and for quite some time was separated from her family members and friends.Cortez's American debut occurred in 1970. She performed in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, then finally New York, where she first appeared alongside Martina Arroyo in Verdi's Messa da Requiem in Carnegie Hall. Both La Scala and the Metropolitan scheduled her, the first in Samson et Dalila, the other in Carmen. In Milan, succeeding Shirley Verrett's Dalila, Cortez was asked by the opera management and conductor Georges Pretre to consider an extra performance, an exceptional decision of the theatre following the enormous success of her first appearance with the house. In New York, Richard Tucker, her Don Jose for the debut night, hailed her as one of the most attractive and convincing Carmens he has ever sung with.
From then on, Cortez's career covered every major opera house in the world. Claudio Abbado invited her for the Verdi Requiem at La Scala, along with Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
and Nicolai Ghiaurov
Nicolai Ghiaurov
Nicolai Ghiaurov was a Bulgarian opera singer and one of the most famous bass singers of the postwar period. He was admired for his powerful, sumptuous voice, and was particularly associated with roles of Verdi.Ghiaurov married the Italian soprano Mirella Freni in 1978...
. The celebrated Bulgarian bass was her partner for Massenet's freshly revived opera, Don Quichotte, both in Paris and Chicago, the Parisian mise en scène
Mise en scène
Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction...
being assigned to Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
. In Chicago, Cortez was a commanding and electrifying Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda opposite Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....
(1973). The friendship and mutual respect between the two divas represented a milestone in Cortez's career. For Norma and Maria Stuarda, as well as for Don Carlo and Il Trovatore, the Catalan soprano and the Romanian mezzo-soprano were scheduled together in Lisbon, Naples, Nice, Vienna, Cologne, Madrid and La Scala (Norma, 1974) and at the Met (Il Trovatore, 1973).
In 1972, Viorica Cortez acceded to the Arena di Verona "hall of fame", interpreting Amneris opposite the Radames of Franco Corelli. In the following years, she would become a favourite of the notoriously picky audience of what is Italy's most demanding opera festival.
In 1975, having become a French citizen, she returned to her long-missed Bucharest for a recital at the Atheneum.
Cortez felt at home both in the Italian and French repertoire. She portrayed a rapturous Dalila (Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisabona - 1975, Grand Opera, Paris - 1978), a powerful, intense Azucena (Metropolitan, New York - 1973, 1977, 1978, Grand Opera, Paris - 1975, Staatsoper, Vienna - 1973, 1974, 1976, Teatro alla Scala, Milan - 1978), a fragile Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, almost always with Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus Trujillo was a distinguished Spanish tenor of partly Austrian descent, particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles...
, who named her his "absolute favourite Charlotte", a dramatic Eboli, notably in Vienna, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Bilbao and for La Scala Bicentennial - 1978, a delicate and interiorised Marguerite in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust (Paris, Verona), and a sovereign and shining Amneris (La Scala, Milan - 1973, Arena di Verona - 1977, Metropolitan, New York - 1979).
Nevertheless, her repertory widened every year. She was a shockingly tempestuous Klitemnestra in Richard Strauss' Elektra opposite Birgit Nillson (Rome, 1971). She felt no boundaries or shyness in jumping from one composer to another, mixing Monteverdi (L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Naples, 1976) with Giordano (Fedora, Bologna, 1977), Stravinsky (Oedipus Rex, La Scala, Milan, 1972, 1973, 1980) with Mussorgsky (Boris Godunov, Paris, 1980), Rossini (Tancredi, Martina Franca, 1976) with Lalo (Le Roi d'Ys, Nancy, 1979).
Career of the 1980s
During the 1970s, Viorica Cortez went from one opera to another, across the world, singing Dalila in Paris one day, Azucena in Milan the next, and Giulietta in Chicago the following week. This intensity was about to take its toll.At the beginning of the '80s, Cortez's voice seemed to be slowly but surely deteriorating. Critiques and objections became more and more frequent. Still, as the contracts were signed five years in advance, she had to sing. She was forced to cancel some L'Hérodiade performances in Avignon, some others in Marseille, and she searched for support besides her family and her vocal trainer. Recovering, she returned to the stage after a couple of months, more cautious, more balanced, decided to abandon the tremendous turmoil of the past. She became quite selective in arranging her schedule. For almost four years, she was rarely in Europe, due to her long-term Metropolitan engagements (Samson et Dalila - 1981, Il Trovatore, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Adriana Lecouvreur - 1982, 1983, 1984). She starred in some, star-directed productions in Paris (Nabucco, alongside Grace Bumbry and Sherrill Milnes - 1979, Jorge Lavelli's Oedipus Rex - 1979, Joseph Losey's Boris Godunov - 1980 or Sonja Frissell's Un ballo in maschera, alongside José Carreras - 1981).
In 1984, she was a vehement Klitemnestra in Regina Resnik's San Francisco Opera production of Elektra. She sang in Denver, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Bagdad, Tokyo, Osaka, and Amsterdam, but she also returned to stages such as L'Arena di Verona (La Gioconda and Aida - 1988), Grand Opera, Paris (Herodias in Richard Strauss' Salome in the fascinating mise-en-scene of her dear Jorge Lavelli), Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona (Il Trovatore, La Gioconda, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Il Matrimonio Segreto - 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989), Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Un Ballo in maschera with Luciano Pavarotti - 1989). Still in 1989, she awed Paris once again, this time as La Star in Zygmund Krause's eponymous opera, directed by Jorge Lavelli
Jorge Lavelli
Jorge Lavelli is a French theater director of Italian ethnicity and Argentine origin.The son of Italian immigrants in Argentina, Lavelli has lived in France since the early 1960s. He became a French citizen in 1977....
. The former editor in chief of Opera International, Sergio Segalini, called her "diva assolutta".
Basis for a new career: the 1990s
From the middle of the 1980s, Cortez, extremely conscious of the status of an artist of her calibre, started to abandon the prima donna roles in favour of more mature, real-life and age correspondent parts. She sang her last Eboli in 1982, her last Giulietta and Dalila in 1987, and her last Amneris in 1988. For someone who had been hailed "the most beautiful mezzo-soprano in the world" it required refinement and elegance to maintain that image. She then alternated her signature roles with the ones that would become the landmarks of her new repertoire: La Cieca in La Gioconda (Verona, Barcelona), Madame Flora in Menotti's Medium (Paris, Catania), Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica (Nice, Madrid, Bilbao, Lisbon), La Marquise de Berkenfield in La Fille du Regiment (Torino, Oviedo, Madrid, Monte-Carlo, Strasbourg), Anaide in Leoncavallo's Zaza (Palermo), Ulrica in Un Ballo in maschera (Barcelona, Genova), Madame de Croissy in "Les Dialogues des Carmelites" (Avignon, Vichy), Quickly in "Falstaff" (Bordeaux, Buenos Aires, Hamburg). Her acting abilities, as well as the richness of her voice, made her a sought after mezzo for composition roles (character roles), a trend she followed for the next decade of her career.Equally important, Cortez was able to sing in her native country again, after 20 years of exile. She appeared in numerous benefit galas and concerts and gave recitals in Bucharest and Iasi, as well as opera performances ("Carmen" in Iasi - 1991, "Il Trovatore" at the National Opera in Bucharest - 1992).
The 2000s
At the beginning of 2001, coming from Iaşi, the car her husband was driving crashed violently into a tree, killing the driver and seriously hurting the mezzo-soprano. After almost six months of recovery, she returned to the stage (La Comtesse de Coigny and Madelon in GiordanoUmberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
's Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
), determined to pursue her career. Her comeback was emotionally highlighted by the Spanish press. Subsequently, as a confirmation of the very special relationship between the singer and the Spanish audience, she concentrated most of her career in Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, and Bilbao, without neglecting offers from Italy or France. At the Gran Teatre del Liceu, she added to her repertoire a role she had been dreaming of since the 80s: The Old Countess from Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
, which she reprised in Madrid (Teatro Real, 2004). She later sang Buryovka in Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
's Jenůfa
Jenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
in Barcelona (2005), where she also opened the 2007-2008 season as la Comtesse/Madelon. Again in 2008, Viorica Cortez made her return to the Monte-Carlo Opera (Starenka Buryovka in Janáček's Jenůfa). She also reprised one of her best recent characters, Madame de Croissy, in Les Dialogues des Carmelites, for the opening of the 2008-2009 season at Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, in the famed production of Robert Carsen. The performances were highly acclaimed by the press. Later on, she was to debut with Teatro del Maggio in Florence (Cavalleria rusticana). In 2009, Viorica Cortez starred in the creation of a new opera (Une affaire etrangere) in Montpellier. Cortez is scheduled to return on stage in Cavalleria Rusticana for the 2010-2011 season of the Marseille Opera.
Carmen
"Carmen du siecle" - this is what the French press was headlining in the 1970s. Without any doubt, Cortez was one of the most sought-after Carmens of the 1970s and '80s. She sang the opera 278 times, more than Gianna PederziniGianna Pederzini
Gianna Pederzini was an Italian mezzo-soprano.Pederzini studied in Naples with Fernando de Lucia, and made her stage debut in Messina, as Preziosilla, in 1923...
or Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.-Life:Born at Forlì, Romagna, she studied in Rovigo and Padua, and made her operatic debut at Montagnana in 1928...
, and since her big Covent Garden break (1968), she relentlessly deepened the character, almost identifying herself with Mérimée's and Bizet's heroine. The critics applauded her creamy, very extended voice, able to cover all three registers, her exquisite technique, her refinement in the French way of punctuating, as well as her breathtaking beauty and charisma on stage. With Carmen, Viorica Cortez entered the exclusive club of opera stars. She sang the role at La Scala (1972, with Giuseppe di Stefano), 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...
(1971, 1979), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1968, 1969, 1974), Grand Opera, Paris (1970), Staatsoper, Vienna (1970, 1971, 1973, 1976), Arena di Verona (1975, 1980), but also in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Salzburg, Bilbao, Oviedo, Rome, Trieste, Bologna, Chicago, Naples, Toulouse, Beograd, Piacenza, Rio de Janeiro, Pistoia, Montreal, Lille, Avignon, Málaga, Genova, Philadelphia, Strasbourg, San Antonio, Seattle, Lisbon, Messina, Lausanne, Bucharest, etc. Her last "Carmen" was in her native Iaşi, in 1991.
Discography
Viorica Cortez arrived in Western Europe when all the major recording labels had exclusive contracts more famous mezzo-sopranos. Thus, Cortez had to content herself with sporadic recordings. The first international one, made for EMI France, was maybe another missed step: Mercedes in "Carmen" alongside Grace Bumbry, Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni and Kostas Paskalis, under the baton of Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos. By that time, Cortez had already sung the role at Covent Garden and France, being a demanded Carmen herself. She then had the chance of recording Azucena in Il Trovatore with Bruno Bartoletti and Maddalena in Rigoletto with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, both operas being filmed for German television. A celebrated recording was that of Il Cappello di Paglia di FirenzeIl cappello di paglia di Firenze
Il cappello di paglia di Firenze is an opera by Nino Rota to an Italian-language libretto by the composer and Ernesta Rota, based on the play Le chapeau de paille d'Italie by Eugène Labiche and Marc Michel.The opera premièred at the Teatro...
by the world-famous film music composer Nino Rota
Nino Rota
Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
. In 1977, Cortez recorded in Luxembourg her one and only aria recital, which won the Grand Prize of Académie Lyrique du Disque in France. It was later released as a CD. The lack of official recordings kept Cortez one step behind her illustruous colleagues Fiorenza Cossotto, Grace Bumbry, Shirley Verrett or Elena Obraztsova. Fortunately, the last decade brought a flourishing of in-house live recordings: Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio (Bologna, 1977), Aida (Vienna, 1973, Denver, 1986), Elektra (Rome, 1971), Norma (Naples, 1973, Caracas, 1975), Maria Stuarda (Chicago, 1973), Il trovatore (Paris 1975, New York 1978, 1981), La favorita (Genova, 1976), Don Carlo (Milan, 1978), Adriana Lecouvreur (New York, 1983), Gioconda (Verona, 1988), Suor Angelica (Madrid, 1993), Zaza (Palermo, 1994), La fille du régiment" (Madrid, 1996), Les contes d'Hoffmann (Orange, 2002), Jenůfa (Barcelona, 2005).
Personal life
Viorica Cortez was married three times: first, to the noted Romanian sculptor Marcel Guguianu, then to the famous French composer Emmanuel BondevilleEmmanuel Bondeville
Emmanuel Bondeville was a French composer and music administrator, born 29 October 1898 in Rouen, and died 26 November 1987 in Paris.- Biography :...
, former manager of the Paris Opera and Opéra Comique and finally to the Romanian-born historian Adolf Armbruster. From the first marriage, the singer has one daughter - Catalina.