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Maria Cebotari | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 10 February 1910 |
| Died | 9 June 1949 (1949-06-10) (aged 39) |
| Occupation | Opera singer (lyric coloratura soprano) |
| Years active | 1931–1949 |
| Spouse(s) | Alexander Virubov (1929–1938) Gustav Diessl (1938–1948) |
Maria Cebotari (original name:Ciubotaru,[2] 10 February 1910 – 9 June 1949[3]) was aBessarabian-bornRomanianlyric soprano who made her career in Germany. She was widely known as asoprano by the mid 1930s and noted in particular for her wide range of repertoire.[4][5][6][7][8]
Beniamino Gigli stated that Cebotari was one of the greatest female voices he had ever heard.[9]Maria Callas was compared to her,[6] andAngela Gheorghiu named Maria Cebotari among the artists she admires the most.[10]
With thousands of people in attendance, her funeral was "one of the most imposing demonstrations of love and honor any deceased artist has ever received" in the history ofVienna.[9][11][12]
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Cebotari was born in Chişinău, Bessarabia, and studied singing at the Chişinău Conservatory in 1910.[13] In 1929, she joined theMoscow Art Theater Company as an actress. Shortly after, she married the company's leader, Alexander Virubov.[14]
She soon moved toBerlin with the company and studied singing with Oskar Daniel for three months.[15] She made her debut as an operatic singer as Mimi inLa Bohème atDresdenSemperoper on 15 March 1931.Bruno Walter invited her to theSalzburg Festival, where she sangEuridice inGluck's operaOrfeo ed Euridice.[16]
In 1935, she sang the part ofAminta in the world premiere ofRichard Strauss' operaDie Schweigsame Frau underKarl Böhm at Dresden Semper Opera House. Strauss advised her to move to Berlin, and in 1936 she joined theBerlin State Opera, where she was aprima donna until 1946. That year, she sang Susanna inLe Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina inDon Giovanni, and Sophie inDer Rosenkavalier for the Dresden Semper Opera Company's performances at Covent GardenRoyal Opera House ofLondon. Cebotari appeared at many opera houses, including theVienna State Opera andLa Scala Opera House ofMilan.
In 1938, she divorced Virubov and married the Austrian actorGustav Diessl, with whom she had two sons.[15] In 1946, she leftBerlin and joined the Vienna State Opera House. The next year, she revisited Covent Garden with the Vienna State Opera Company and sangSalome, Donna Anna inDon Giovanni, and Countess Almaviva inLe Nozze di Figaro. On September 27 of that year, she was Donna Anna to the Ottavio ofRichard Tauber, in his final stage appearance less than a week before his cancerous left lung was removed.
In early 1949, she suffered severe pain during the performance ofLe Nozze di Figaro at La Scala Opera House. At first, doctors did not consider it serious. However, on 31 March 1949, she collapsed during the performance ofKarl Millöcker's operettaDer Bettelstudent in Vienna. During surgery on 4 April, doctors found cancer in her liver and pancreas. She died from cancer on 9 June 1949 in Vienna.[3] British pianistClifford Curzon and his wifeLucille Wallace adopted her two sons.
Cebotari had a versatile voice; her repertoire coveredcoloratura,soubrette, lyric, and dramatic roles, as is illustrated in her performance history. She concentrated on four composers:Mozart,Richard Strauss,Verdi, andPuccini. Richard Strauss described her as "the best all-rounder on the European stage, and she is never late, and she never cancels". During a BBC interview decades after her death, Herbert von Karajan said she was the greatest "Madame Butterfly" he had ever conducted.
Along with her successful career at the opera houses, Cebotari appeared in several operatic films, such asVerdi's Three Women,Maria Malibran, andThe Dream of Madame Butterfly.[3]
Cebotari also was cast in the filmOdessa in fiamme (Odessa in Flames) in 1942, directed by Italian directorCarmine Gallone with the script by Nicolae Kiriţescu. The movie is a fascist propaganda film about the Battle of Odessa, which was won by Romanian and Nazi troops. The Romanian-Italian co-production won at the Festival of Venice in 1942.[17] In the film, Cebotari plays the role of Maria Teodorescu, an opera singer from Bessarabia, in Chisinau with her eight-year-old son at the time of the invasion. Her husband fights as a captain in the Romanian army in Bucharest, and her son is taken. Teodorescu is informed that her son will be kept in a camp and trained to be a Soviet man. Teodorescu consents to perform Russian music in theatres and taverns in exchange for her son's return. By chance, her spouse discovers her photo, and the family gets back together.
Odessa in Flames was banned after Soviet troops reached Bucharest.[citation needed] The film was later rediscovered in theCinecittà archives in Rome,[citation needed] where it was screened for the first time in years in Romania in December 2006.[18]
Director Vlad Druc's documentary "Aria" (2005) about the life of Maria Cebotari faced difficulties when screening in Moldova during the Communist administration (which ended in 2009). This was due to a part in the movie where the soprano self-identifies as Romanian, contrary to the official policy of the Communist government that called the ethnic majority Moldovan.[19]
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Many of her surviving recordings are from live performances, either in opera houses or radio broadcasts. Almost all have now been digitally remastered.
The Austrian CD labelPreiser Records has issued several of her CDs, among which isThe Art of Maria Cebotari andMaria Cebotari singt Richard Strauss.[20][21]
