Emma Calvé

Emma Calvé ( born August 15, 1858 in Decazeville (Aveyron ), † January 6, 1942 in Montpellier ( Hérault); actually Rose Emma Calvet ) was a French soprano / mezzo-soprano. The Carmen du siècle - so she was greeted by her enthusiastic contemporaries - is despite their relatively short career as one of the greatest opera singers of the so-called Belle Epoque.

Life

Emma Calvé grew up near Roquefort in a humble family. Her father Justin Calvet worked as a contractor on behalf of mines and the railway line Compagnie du Midi. The little Emma spent her first years in Spain; in her home, she was then entrusted to various convent schools, where it was noticed her voice soon. After her parents separated, she lived with her mother, Léonie, only on the Causse, then in Paris, where she took singing lessons with private teachers.

When she became famous, she earned the feudal castle of cabrières at Aguessac north of Millau, whose re- Fitting devoured several million.

In America, it was built in 1916 on all platforms for avid ambassador for the war -torn France. In a Tricolore wrapped, she broke while singing the Marseillaise of passionate enthusiasm, which - as it was claimed shortly after that - caused the entry of the United States.

During their journey around the world that was created as a farewell tour, she married a traveling colleague, an Italian tenor, whose passion for gambling was no secret. But the diva was too fiery to go into retirement. Cabrières became the song for the American high school junior. Always proud of their home, they also sang in the age at the celebrations of Millau and of Arles, the folk songs of their region in Occitan.

At the end of her life she lived in a simple solid house in the city center of Millau. On January 6, 1942 Emma Calve died lonely and withdrawn 83 -year-old in a hospital in Montpellier. Three days before her death, took up its ultima verba there ausquartierter a reporter of Radio Paris, because her voice was still remarkable even in old age.

She is buried in the cemetery in the town of Millau. Stands on the marble top of her grave site. " Sur ma tombe un petit bassin où les oiseaux viendront boire et chanter ... " (On my grave [ I want ] a small pool to which to drink and sing the birds will come. )

Career

Emma Calvé studied singing in Brussels with Mathilde Marchesi, and then in Paris and Rome. Marchesi himself had in the singing teacher Manuel García Younger, the brother of Maria Malibran, studied.

Your climb on all the major opera stages she had to work hard. The Paris Academy of Music - - Despite their insistence the Conservatory remained closed for them, instead she took private singing and elocution lessons.

1882, she made ​​her debut at La Monnaie in Brussels, as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust; on their tour through Italy, she learned the art of Eleonora Duse know. Back in Paris, she had great success at the Italian theater and at the Komische Oper, where it was supported by good friends. Then she sang from 1892 to 1904 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

Although her register was originally that of a soprano, she became famous for a mezzo-soprano, appropriate roles. While you register, in terms of some sounds - was strong, she had learned from one of the last surviving castrato of the Roman Court, as the highest notes of the voice could be produced liquid.

The world Calvé excelled in many roles of French opera, particularly with the Metropolitan Opera in New York ( 1893-1904 ). In America, she went in a private train. Her most interpretations were Bizet's Carmen, and the Sapho in Massenet 's opera.

A proof of their art they had a ceremony, close together with recordings of Caruso, among others in the basement of the Palais Garnier; to 2007 an opening was not permitted.

Assessment

About her voice: "{ Your Art } is characterized by a rare and wonderful change: time it sets the tone a sharp, sometimes she gives it soft by itself. In this case, their sounds sound incredibly pure with surprisingly varied colors and impeccable legati. This bel canto and verismo be together for the balance. An excellent stable spawning the voice they could both - like a virtuoso - the - in terms of technology - sing the most difficult places, as well as to damage by the magic power of her timbre, without the purity of sound, bring in dramatic effects " ( Rodolfo Celletti. op.cit. )

Discography

• The [ Lionel ] Mapleson Cylinders Recorded in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City

Gramophone and Typewriter Company, London 1902

• Pathé, Paris 1920
• Les Introuvables du Chant Français, EMI, 2005

Works

• " Sous les tous j'ai ciels chanté " [ souvenirs ... ], 1939; Paris: Plon 1940 ( autobiography, in French)