Conchita Badía

Conchita Badía in 1926

Concepción Badía de Agustí (14 November 1897 – 2 May 1975) (known by her stage name as Conchita Badía)^[1] was a Spanish soprano and pianist. Admired for her spontaneity, expressiveness, and clear diction, she was considered one the greatest interpreters of 20th century Spanish and Latin American art song.^[2] She premiered many works in that genre, including those by Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, Frederic Mompou, Alberto Ginastera, and Enric Morera, several of which had been specially written for her voice.

Biography

Conchita Badía was born Concepció Badia i Millás in Barcelona on 14 November 1897 and studied with Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla and Pablo Casals. She had initially enrolled in the Granados Academy as a piano student, but the composer 'discovered' her voice during a solfège examination.^[3] Her first appearance on the opera stage was as one of the six flower maidens in a performance of Wagner's Parsifal at the Palau de la Música Catalana in 1913 when she was only 16 years old. Her solo recital debut came on 5 April 1915 in the premiere performance of the Granados song cycle, Canciones Amatorias, accompanied by the composer. (Two of the songs, "Llorad corazón" and "Gracia mía", were dedicated to her by the Granados).^[4] Following the death of Granados and his wife in the 1916 sinking of the Sussex, she performed in numerous concerts in his memory. In 1935, she made one of her rare appearances on the opera stage to sing the title role in his opera María del Carmen. It was the first time the work had been revived since its initial performances in 1898-1899.

During the 1930s she gave many recitals and concerts, not only in Spain, but also in London, Paris, and Vienna. In Vienna, she sang Robert Gerhard’s Sis cançons populars catalanes in their 1932 premiere conducted by Anton Webern.^[5] Gerhard had also dedicated his early song cycle L'infantament meravellós de Shahrazada (1916–18) to Badía and later said of her:

"She feels such an intense joy when she sings – joy in the music, joy in her own voice – that it is impossible not to share it when you listen to her."^[6]

In 1936 Badía and her daughters left Spain to escape the Spanish Civil War. They initially lived in Paris and then in Rio de Janiero before moving to Argentina where her husband joined them in 1938. In Argentina she continued her close artistic partnership with her fellow exile, Manuel de Falla. She also collaborated closely with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera and the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos. In 1946, she and her family returned to Spain, where she introduced many of their songs to Spanish audiences. Badía also taught singing and piano, both privately and in her later years as a professor at Barcelona's Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. Amongst her pupils were the soprano Montserrat Caballé and the pianist Joaquín Nin-Culmell.

Conchita Badía died in Barcelona on 2 May 1975. In 1997, the Archivo Manuel de Falla and the University of Granada marked the centenary of her birth with an exhibition and a series of concerts in her honour.

Recordings

• Conchita Badía: Homenaje – Songs by Manuel de Falla, Juan José Castro, Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino, and others. Recordings of the December 1942 concerts broadcast on Radio El Mundo (Buenos Aires) with de Falla conducting his own music, sung by Badía. The album also includes Badía's 1964 Madrid concert dedicated to songs by Argentinian composers, the majority of which had been composed specially for her. Label: Piscitelli.
• The Catalan Piano Tradition – Conchita Badía, accompanied by Alicia de Larrocha, can be heard singing three songs from Colección de tonadillas by Enrique Granados: No 8. "El mirar de la maja", No 7. "La maja de Goya", and No 5. "El majo Olvidado". Recorded in Barcelona circa 1960. Label: VAI (Video Artists International).
• The EMI Record Of Singing: Vol. 3 - 1926-1939 – Conchita Badía, accompanied by Oscar Donato Colacelli, can be heard singing two songs from Colección de tonadillas by Enrique Granados: No 4. "El majo discreto" and No 6. "El majo timido". Recorded in Argentina, 5 October 1940. Label: Testament.

References

1. ^ In some sources, e.g. Clark (2006), her name is given its Catalan spelling - Conxita Badia.
2. ^ Sadie (1988) p. 49
3. ^ Clark (2006) p. 175
4. ^ Clark (2006) p. 147.
5. ^ Kent
6. ^ Original Spanish: "Badía o la alegría, porque ella siente al cantar una alegría tan intensa - alegría de la música, alegría de su propia voz - que es imposible no participar de ella al escucharla." quoted in Tarazona (1996)

• Carrillo de Albornoz, Angustias, Conchita Badía: Una voz para España, Asociación Cultural Nueva Acrópolis en Granada, May 2006 (in Spanish). Accessed 21 January 2009.
• Clark, Walter Aaron, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano, Oxford University Press US, 2006. ISBN 0195140664
• Del Pino, Rafael, "Conchita Badía, en el recuerdo: Una voz para Granados, Casals y Falla", La Opinión de Granada, 1 May 2005, p. 34 (in Spanish). Accessed 21 January 2009.
• Diario Época, "En recuerdo de Conchita Badía", 17 March 1997 (in Spanish). Accessed 21 January 2009.
• Kent, Adam, A Short History of the Music of Catalonia, Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, City University of New York. Accessed 21 January 2009.
• Montsalvatge, Javier; Granados de Carreras, Natalia; and Fernandez-Cid, Antonio Ha muerto la cantante Concepción Badía de Agusti, La Vanguardia, 3 May 1975, p. 41 (in Spanish). Accessed 21 January 2009.
• Sadie, Stanley (ed), The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music, W. W. Norton & Co., 1988, p. 49. ISBN 0393026205
• Tarazona, Andrés Ruiz, "Desventura y gloria de un exiliado", El Mundo, 12 October 1996 (in Spanish). Accessed 22 January 2009.

Persondata
Name	Badia, Conchita
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	14 November 1897
Place of birth
Date of death	2 May 1975
Place of death