Renée Doria

Renée Doria (born February 13, 1921) is a French opera singer, one of the leading lyric coloratura soprano of her era in France.

Biography

Born Renée Dumazert in Perpignan, France, after a thorough musical training (piano, solfege, harmony) she turned to vocal study with Umberto Valdarmini, and made her singing debut in concert at the age of 18. Her official operatic debut took place in 1942, in Marseille, as Rosina in "Il barbiere di Siviglia".

After singing Constance in "The Abduction from the Seraglio" in Cannes under Reynaldo Hahn, and the three heroines (Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia) in "Les contes d'Hoffmann" in Strasbourg, opposite the great French bass-baritone Jean-Emile Vanni-Marcoux, she made her Paris debut at the Gaîté-Lyrique in 1943, as Lakmé, and the following year, made her debut at the Opéra-Comique, in the same role. Her debut at the Paris Opera in 1947, as the Queen of the Night in "The Magic Flute", was highly successful. Other roles at that house included: Leila in "Les pecheurs de perles", the title role in "Mireille", Marguerite in "Faust", Juliette in "Roméo et Juliette", Ophélie in "Hamlet", "Manon", "Thais", as well as Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan tutte", Gilda in "Rigoletto", and Violetta in "La Traviata", etc.

Doria also sang in baroque music such as Rameau's "Les Indes galantes", and comtemporary works, such as Ravel's "L'Heure espagnole", and Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmélites". In thirty years of career, Doria sang an estimated sixty roles.

Renée Doria made several recordings, most notably, a complete "Mireille" and "Thais", opposite Michel Sénéchal and Robert Massard, and excerpts of "Rigoletto", "Faust", and "Manon", opposite Alain Vanzo, as well as recital of arias and songs.

Sources

* Alain Pâris, "Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle" (2 vols), Ed. Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th Edn. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). ISBN 2-221-06660-X