Maria Barrientos
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Maria Barrientos (March 10, 1883, Barcelona - August 8, 1946, Ciboure) was a Spanish opera singer, a light coloratura soprano, one of the most eminent sopranos of her time.
[edit] Life and Career
Barrientos received a thorough musical education (piano and violin) at the Music Conservatory in Barcelona, before turning to vocal studies with Francisco Bonet. She made her debut at the Teatro Novedades in Barcelona, as Ines in L'Africaine, in 1898, aged only 15, quickly followed by the role of Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots.
She was rapidly invited at all the major opera houses of Europe, singing in Italy, Germany, England, France, to great acclaim. It is however in South America, especially at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, that she enjoyed her greatest triumphs. Her career was temporarily interrupted in 1907 by her marriage and the birth of a son, the union did not prove a happy one and she returned to the stage in 1909. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on January 31, 1916, in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, other roles there included: Gilda, Rosina, Adina, The Queen of Shemakha, etc. She continued appearing on stage in standard coloratura roles, such as Amina in La sonnambula, Elvira in I puritani, until 1924. She then restricted herself to recitals, and became an admired interpreter of French and Spanish songs.
Barrientos was a singer with a voice of almost instrumental limpidity. She made a valuable set of recordings for Fonotipia Records and Columbia Records.
She retired to the south-west of France, where she became an unpenitent Bridge player.
[edit] 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
- D. Hamilton (ed.),The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Opera (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
- Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). ISBN 2-213-01563-6
