Bidú Sayão
Bidú Sayão (also spelled Bidu Sayao), born Balduína "Bidú" de Oliveira Sayã… Read Full Bio ↴Bidú Sayão (also spelled Bidu Sayao), born Balduína "Bidú" de Oliveira Sayão (11 May 1902 in Itaguaí, Rio – 12 March 1999 in Rockport, Maine) was a Brazilian opera soprano. One of Brazil's most famous performers, Bidú was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1937 to 1952. She was one of the most beloved sopranos in the entire history of opera. She was known for her ethereal, silvery tone and a stage presence of delicacy and refinement.
Life and career
Bidu Sayão was born to an upper-class family of Portuguese, French and Swiss heritage, in Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and named Balduina de Oliveira after her grandmother. Her father Pedro Luiz de Oliveira Sayão died when she was five years old and her mother Maria José da Costa Oliveira Sayão struggled to support her daughter's pursuit of a singing career. She wanted to be an actress, but as going on the stage was "out of the question for a girl born in a respectable family”. She then studied voice with the aid of an uncle.
At just eighteen Bidu Sayão made her major opera debut in Rio de Janeiro. Some sources say an appearance in “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Rio's Teatro Municipal removed family opposition to her dream of singing.
Her performance and talent led to an opportunity to study with one of the world's leading teachers, Elena Teodorini first in Brazil, then in Romania. A Romanian who was living in Brazil, she took Bidú to her home country to continue her studies. In 1922, Bidú then moved to Nice and became a pupil of Jean de Reszke, a Polish tenor with one of history's purest vocal techniques. After he died, she returned to Brazil in 1926 to make a stunning second debut in Rio, as Rosina in “The Barber of Seville”.
During the mid-1920s and early 1930s, she performed in Rome, Buenos Aires, Paris, as well as in her native Brazil.
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 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.
Metropolitan Opera
Bidu Sayão made her U.S. debut in a recital at Town Hall in New York City on 30 December 1935. Her U.S. operatic debut followed on 21 January 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. Toscanini called her la picolla brasiliana.
She sang her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera as Manon on 13 February 1937, replacing the Spanish soprano Lucrezia Bori. The critics, including Olin Downes of The New York Times, 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.
In February 1938 she performed at the White House for the Roosevelts. Roosevelt offered her American citizenship, which she refused. She told him “In Brazil I was born and in Brazil I will die”.
She performed to much acclaim for the University of Michigan May Festival in 1948 with Conductor Thor Johnson. She sang "Un Bel Di" from Madame Butterfly as an encore.
Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos had an artistic partnership with the diva that lasted many years. She recorded a number of his compositions, including a famous recording of the “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5”.
She performed a few more times at the Theatro Municipal in Rio in pre-war 1930s and post-war 1940s; her last performances in Brazil took place between August and September of 1946, after which she would return to the U.S. for good.
Bidu 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 heir peak. 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 later she made her final recording as the soprano soloist on Villa-Lobos' world premiere stereo recording of his cantata Forest of the Amazon with the composer conducting the Symphony of the Air.
Following her husband's death in 1963, Bidu Sayão lived quietly at her home in Maine until her death.
Personal Life
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 Italian baritone Giuseppe Danise (1883–1963). After her retirement, they lived in their oceanfront property in Lincolnville, Maine, staying together until his death.
Later Years and Death
The popularity and accessibility of Compact Discs (CDs) format prompted reissues of many of her recordings. A fact which, she told a São Paulo newspaper, made her feel "relieved”, since she had been "tormented" by the idea that all her work had been forgotten.
Sayão had a nearly fatal stroke in 1993, but recovered fairly well, considering her age of 92.
In 1995, she returned to Rio for the last time, for a tribute to her during the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, when she learned that Beija-Flor Samba School( Beija-Flor de Nilópolis) had chosen her life story as their presentation theme at the great Rio Carnaval parade of that year. She took part of the parade, arriving in the last “car” “The Black Swan”, sitting on a throne carefully prepared for her.
That was her last public appearance. Although she had planned one last visit to Rio for her 100th birthday celebration and to fulfill one last wish - to see Baía de Guanabara again - the soprano passed before her wish came true.
Bidú died of pneumonia on 12 March 1999, aged 96, at the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine. Her ashes were scattered across the bay in front of her home.
Legacy
Following Bidú’s last visit to her homeland, the government made 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. Sayão's portrait, painted by Curtis Ether, hangs in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
Bibliography
The Last Prima Donnas, by Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf, Bidu Sayão, p. 507 (1982)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidu_Sayão
Life and career
Bidu Sayão was born to an upper-class family of Portuguese, French and Swiss heritage, in Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and named Balduina de Oliveira after her grandmother. Her father Pedro Luiz de Oliveira Sayão died when she was five years old and her mother Maria José da Costa Oliveira Sayão struggled to support her daughter's pursuit of a singing career. She wanted to be an actress, but as going on the stage was "out of the question for a girl born in a respectable family”. She then studied voice with the aid of an uncle.
At just eighteen Bidu Sayão made her major opera debut in Rio de Janeiro. Some sources say an appearance in “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Rio's Teatro Municipal removed family opposition to her dream of singing.
Her performance and talent led to an opportunity to study with one of the world's leading teachers, Elena Teodorini first in Brazil, then in Romania. A Romanian who was living in Brazil, she took Bidú to her home country to continue her studies. In 1922, Bidú then moved to Nice and became a pupil of Jean de Reszke, a Polish tenor with one of history's purest vocal techniques. After he died, she returned to Brazil in 1926 to make a stunning second debut in Rio, as Rosina in “The Barber of Seville”.
During the mid-1920s and early 1930s, she performed in Rome, Buenos Aires, Paris, as well as in her native Brazil.
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 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.
Metropolitan Opera
Bidu Sayão made her U.S. debut in a recital at Town Hall in New York City on 30 December 1935. Her U.S. operatic debut followed on 21 January 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. Toscanini called her la picolla brasiliana.
She sang her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera as Manon on 13 February 1937, replacing the Spanish soprano Lucrezia Bori. The critics, including Olin Downes of The New York Times, 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.
In February 1938 she performed at the White House for the Roosevelts. Roosevelt offered her American citizenship, which she refused. She told him “In Brazil I was born and in Brazil I will die”.
She performed to much acclaim for the University of Michigan May Festival in 1948 with Conductor Thor Johnson. She sang "Un Bel Di" from Madame Butterfly as an encore.
Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos had an artistic partnership with the diva that lasted many years. She recorded a number of his compositions, including a famous recording of the “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5”.
She performed a few more times at the Theatro Municipal in Rio in pre-war 1930s and post-war 1940s; her last performances in Brazil took place between August and September of 1946, after which she would return to the U.S. for good.
Bidu 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 heir peak. 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 later she made her final recording as the soprano soloist on Villa-Lobos' world premiere stereo recording of his cantata Forest of the Amazon with the composer conducting the Symphony of the Air.
Following her husband's death in 1963, Bidu Sayão lived quietly at her home in Maine until her death.
Personal Life
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 Italian baritone Giuseppe Danise (1883–1963). After her retirement, they lived in their oceanfront property in Lincolnville, Maine, staying together until his death.
Later Years and Death
The popularity and accessibility of Compact Discs (CDs) format prompted reissues of many of her recordings. A fact which, she told a São Paulo newspaper, made her feel "relieved”, since she had been "tormented" by the idea that all her work had been forgotten.
Sayão had a nearly fatal stroke in 1993, but recovered fairly well, considering her age of 92.
In 1995, she returned to Rio for the last time, for a tribute to her during the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, when she learned that Beija-Flor Samba School( Beija-Flor de Nilópolis) had chosen her life story as their presentation theme at the great Rio Carnaval parade of that year. She took part of the parade, arriving in the last “car” “The Black Swan”, sitting on a throne carefully prepared for her.
That was her last public appearance. Although she had planned one last visit to Rio for her 100th birthday celebration and to fulfill one last wish - to see Baía de Guanabara again - the soprano passed before her wish came true.
Bidú died of pneumonia on 12 March 1999, aged 96, at the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine. Her ashes were scattered across the bay in front of her home.
Legacy
Following Bidú’s last visit to her homeland, the government made 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. Sayão's portrait, painted by Curtis Ether, hangs in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
Bibliography
The Last Prima Donnas, by Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf, Bidu Sayão, p. 507 (1982)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidu_Sayão
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