Maria Cebotari
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Maria Cebotari (10 February 1910, Chişinău, now Republic of Moldova - 9 June 1949, Vienna), Moldovan-born Austrian soprano and actress.
Born as Maria Cebutaru, she studied singing at the Chişinău Conservatory and in 1929 joined the Moscow Art Theater Company as an actress. Soon she married the company's leader, Count Alexander Virudov.
Moving to Berlin with the company, she studied singing with Oskar Daniel for three months and made her debut as an operatic singer by singing Mimi in Puccini's opera La bohème at Dresden Semperoper on 15th March, 1931. Bruno Walter invited her to the Salzburg Festival, where she sang Euridice in Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice.
In 1935, she sang the part of Aminta in the world premiere of Richard Strauss' opera Die Schweigsame Frau under Karl Böhm at Dresden Semper Opera House. Strauss advised her to move to Berlin, and in 1936 she joined the Berlin State Opera, where she was a prima donna until 1946. That year, she sang Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for Dresden Semper Opera Company's performances at Covent Garden Royal Opera House of London. From then on, she appeared at many great opera houses including Vienna State Opera and La Scala Opera House of Milan.
She divorced Count Virudov in 1938, and married the Austrian actor Gustav Diessl, with whom she had two sons. Beside her successful career at the opera houses, Cebotari appeared in several films related to operas - such as "Verdi's Three Women", "Maria Malibran", "The Dream of Madame Butterfly". In 1946, she left Berlin and joined the Vienna State Opera House. She visited Covent Garden again in 1947 with Vienna State Opera Company and sang Salome, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Her husband, Gustav Diessl, died of a heart attack on March 20, 1948. She suffered from severe pain during the performance of Le Nozze di Figaro at La Scala Opera House in early 1949. At first, doctors didn't take it seriously. But on March 31, 1949, she fell down during the performance of Karl Millöcker's operetta Der Bettelstudent in Vienna. During surgery on April 4, doctors found cancer in her liver and pancreas. She died of cancer on June 9, 1949 in Vienna. British pianist Sir Clifford Curzon adopted her two sons.
Cebotari had an extremely versatile voice, and her repertoire covered coloratura, soubrette, lyric and dramatic ones; for example, she sang both Carmen and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Violetta in La Traviata and Salome in the same season. She concentrated on four composers - Mozart, Richard Strauss, Verdi, Puccini.
Many of her survived recordings are live recordings. Although the sound quality is extremely poor, her complete recording of Salome (live performance on September 30, 1947 at Covent Garden) shows that she is one of the greatest Salomes captured in recordings.
Austrian record label Preiser has issued a few recordings of hers; among the records, "The Art of Maria Cebotari" (2-CD set) is especially recommendable for opera lovers who want to know about her.
[edit] Discography
- Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (Böhm 1938, in German/Ahlersmeyer, Teschemacher, Schöffler, Wessely, Böhme) Preiser
- Puccini - Turandot (Keilberth 1938, in German/Hauss, Buchta, Hann, Eipperle, Harlan, Schupp, Kiefer), Koch-Schwann
- Schoeck - Das Schloss Dürande (Heger live 1943, excerpts/Anders, Berglund, Fuchs, Domgraf-Fassbaender, Greindl, Hüsch), Jecklin
- R. Strauss - Salome (Krauss 1947 live/Rothmüller, Höngen), Gebhardt
- R. Strauss - Taillefer (Rother 1944/Ludwig, Hotter), Preiser
- Verdi - Luisa Miller (Elmendorff 1944, in German/Böhme, Hopf, Hann, Herrmann, Eipperle), Preiser
- Verdi - La Traviata (Steinkopf 1943, in German/Rosvaenge, Schlusnus), Iron Needle
- Von Einem - Dantons Tod (Friczay live 1947/Schöffler, Patzak, Klein, Weber, Alsen, Hann), Stradivarius
- Recital (Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo, J. Strauss, Arditi, Rachmaninov, Beckmann, Mackeben, Tchaikovsky), Preiser - LV
- Recital - Maria Cebotari singt Arien (Mozart, J. Strauss, Gounod, Puccini and R. Strauss), Preiser - LV
- Maria Cebotari - Arien, Duette, Szenen (Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini), Preiser
- Recital - Maria Cebotari singt Richard Strauss (Salome, Feuersnot, Der Rosenkavalier, Daphne, Taillefer), Preiser
- Maria Cebotari: Arias, Songs and in Film, Weltbild
- Recital - Maria Cebotari singt Giuseppe Verdi (La Traviata, Rigoletto), Preiser
- Four Famous Sopranos of the Past (Gitta Alpar, Jarmila Novotná and Esther Rethy), Preiser - LV
- Bruno Walter Vol. 1, Symphony No 2 and No 4 (1948/50), LYS
- Helge Rosvaenge in Szenen aus André Chénier und Rigoletto - Duets, Preiser
- Helge Rosvaenge - Duets, Preiser - LV
- Grosse Mozartsänger Vol. 1 1922 - 1942, Orfeo
- Von der Königlichen Hofoper zur Staatsoper ‘Unter den Linden’, Preiser - LV
