Lucrezia Bori

Lucrezia Bori (born Valencia, 24 December 1887 – died New York, 14 May 1960) was a celebrated Spanish operatic singer, a lyric soprano. 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 present-day singer. She studied in Milan with Vidal and made her debut at the Teatro Adriano in Rome as Micaëla in Bizet's "Carmen" in 1908. in 1911 she sang Octavian in the Italian premiere of "Der Rosenkavalier" at La Scala.

Her career at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, where she became one of the great and unforgotten favourites, began during the Met's first visit to Paris, in 1910 (June 9; "Manon Lescaut"); it would last until 1936, although from 1915 to 1921 she stopped singing due to nodes on her vocal cords. She appeared a total of 654 times. She was famous for her portrayals of "Manon" in Massenet's opera, Mimì in "La bohème", Fiora in "L' amore dei trè rè", Mélisande in "Pelléas et Mélisande" and Violetta in "La traviata".

Her farewell gala on 29 March 1936 was one of the great events at the Metropolitan. Bori sang scenes from "Manon" and "La traviata", with contributions from Flagstad, Melchior, Rethberg, Pinza, Ponselle, Martinelli, Tibbett and Richard Crooks.

Ever the Grande Dame, after her retirement from singing she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera Association and became chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

Bori was a supremely elegant and finished practitioner of the lyric art. Neither a great tragedienne nor the owner of a particularly rich voice, she was memorable because of the exquisite individuality of her style. Her manner on stage was uniquely detailed and evocative.

Recordings

Bori's complete Victor recordings were published on four compact discs by Romophone in 1995, numbers 81016-2 and 81017-2, with transfers and audio restoration by Ward Marston, who is planning a re-issue of her complete Edison recordings in his own Marstonrecords label. Live recordings ('air-checks') also exist of her farewell gala at the Met on 29 March 1936.

Bibliography

* "The Last Prima Donnas", by Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf, 1982. ISBN 0-394-52153-6

External links

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