- Lina Cavalieri
Lina Cavalieri (
December 25 ,1874 –February 7 ,1944 ) was an Italian operaticsoprano known for her great beauty. Born Natalina Cavalieri inViterbo ,Latium ,Italy , she lost her parents at the age of fifteen and became a ward of the state, sent to live in aRoman Catholic orphanage. The vivacious young girl was extremely unhappy under the strict raising of the nuns, and at the first opportunity she ran away with a touring theatrical group.Blessed with a good singing voice, a young Cavalieri made her way to
Paris, France , where her stunning good looks opened doors and she obtained work as a singer at one of the city's café-concerts. From there she performed at a variety ofmusic hall s and other such venues aroundEurope while still working to develop her voice for the opera. Asoprano , Cavalieri took voice lessons and made her opera debut inLisbon, Portugal , in 1900, the same year she married her first husband, the Russian Prince Bariatinsky. Eventually she followed in the footsteps ofHariclea Darclée as one of the first stars of Puccini's "Tosca ". In 1904 she sang at theOpéra de Monte-Carlo then in 1905, at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, Cavalieri starred oppositeEnrico Caruso in theUmberto Giordano opera, "Fedora". From there, she and Caruso took the show toNew York City , debuting with it at theMetropolitan Opera onDecember 5 ,1906 .Cavalieri remained with the Metropolitan Opera for the next two seasons performing again with Caruso in 1907 in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut". Renowned as much for her great beauty as for her singing voice, she became one of the most photographed stars of her time. Frequently referred to as the "world's most beautiful woman," she was part of the
tightlacing tradition that saw women usecorset ry to create an "hour-glass" figure. During the 1909–1910 season she sang with Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera Company. Her first marriage long over, she had a whirlwind romance and marriage withRobert Winthrop Chanler (1872–1930), a member of New York's prominentAstor family . However, this marriage lasted only a very short time and Cavalieri returned to Europe where she became a much-loved star in pre-RevolutionarySt. Petersburg, Russia , and in theUkraine .During her career, Cavalieri sang with other opera greats such as the Italian baritone
Titta Ruffo and the French tenorLucien Muratore , whom she married in 1913. After retiring from the stage, Cavalieri ran a cosmetic salon in Paris. In 1914, on the eve of her fortieth birthday — her beauty still spectacular — she wrote an advice column on make-up for women in "Femina" magazine and published a book, "My Secrets of Beauty". In 1915, she returned to her nativeItaly to make motion pictures. When that country became involved inWorld War I , she went to the United States where she made four moresilent film s. The last three of her films were the product of her friend, the Belgian film directorEdward José .Married for the fourth time to Paolo d’Arvanni, Cavalieri returned to live with her husband in Italy. Well into her sixties when
World War II broke out, she nevertheless worked as a volunteer nurse. Cavalieri was killed in 1944 during anAllied bombing raid that destroyed her home in the outskirts of Florence.La Cavalieri's discography is slim. In 1910, for Columbia, she recorded arias from "Faust", "Carmen", "Mefistofele", "La bohème", "Manon Lescaut" and "Tosca", as well as the song, "Maria, Marì! (Ah! Marì! Ah! Marì!)" In 1917, for Pathé, the soprano recorded "Le rêve passé," with Muratore.
She was painted by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini (acquired by Maurice Rothschild) and by the Swiss-born American artist
Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862-1947). The latter is now the property of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the gift of Nicholas Meredith Turner in memory of his wife the sopranoJessica Dragonette . Hers is the face that appears repeatedly, obsessively inPiero Fornasetti 's designsIn 1955, Italian actress
Gina Lollobrigida portrayed Cavalieri in the film "The World's Most Beautiful Woman ". In 2004, a book was published authored by Paul Fryer and Olga Usova titled "Lina Cavalieri -The Life of Opera’s Greatest Beauty, 1874–1944 ".Films
*"Manon Lescaut" (1914)
*"La Sposa della morte " (1915)
*"La Rosa di Granada " (1916)
*"The Eternal Temptress " (1917)
*"Love's Conquest " (1918)
*"A Woman of Impulse " (1918)
*"The Two Brides " (1919)Iconography:
*"
Antonio de La Gandara - Portrait of Lina CavalieriExternal links
* [http://www.lagandara.fr La Gandara]
*imdb name|0146796
*YouTube|pqn6-HpXIWE|Lina Cavalieri- Aria dei Gioielli YouTube: Lina Cavalieri in an excerpt from "Faust" (audio only, 1910).
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