Concepció Badia i Millàs

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Conxita Badia in a concert in 1939

Concepció Badia i Millàs , also called Conxita (born November 14, 1897 in Barcelona , † May 2, 1975 ) was a Catalan singer. She was one of the most famous sopranos of the 20th century in the field of classical and popular singing. Throughout her artistic life her three great masters were Enric Granados , Pau Casals and Manuel de Falla .

life and work

Badia was a student of Enric Granados . In 1913 she made her debut at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona in Wagner's Parsifal . As a young interpreter, some works were written for her and some were dedicated to her. Mentioned here are Gracia mía i Llorad corazón by Enric Granados (1913), Verger de galanies of Robert Gerhard , Excelsior by Felip Pedrell (1921) and Madrigals i Amoroses of Apelles Mestres . She has interpreted Granados works throughout her artistic career. In 1935 Pau Casals dedicated seven songs to her . Because of her expressive diction and her excellent language skills, she was considered an outstanding song interpreter. Their program included concert and art songs by Catalan composers such as Francesc Alió , Pau Casals, Felip Pedrell and Joaquim Nin .

In 1930 she was already working with Heitor Villa-Lobos in São Paulo . In 1939 she settled in Buenos Aires . There she became the preferred interpreter of Manuel de Falla, who also lived in exile there . There she also interpreted Argentine artists such as José María Castro , Gilardo Gilardi , Alberto Ginastera , Carlos Gustavino , López Buchardo , Carlos Suffern .

Badia performed in the most important concert halls in Argentina and Uruguay and made Catalan art song music known in South America. Through her music education work, she established a school in South America that carried on her musical aesthetics and genre. In 1946 she returned to Europe, to Catalonia, and here became an important multiplier of South American art music. The beauty of her voice and the purity of her interpretations fascinated music critics and audiences alike.

On her return Badia became a professor of singing at the Conservatori de Música de Barcelona . Here she became a teacher at Montserrat Caballé . She taught numerous aspiring singers at the international music courses in Santiago de Compostela and passed on her knowledge.

Badia has received numerous awards and honors, including the City of Barcelona Gold Medal in 1969. Badia has an extremely large discography.

Her international career has taken her to the most important stages in the world and earned her the admiration of the most important composers and contemporary musicians whom she met in and outside Catalonia . Not only did she sing in a wide variety of genres - chamber music, songs, grand oratorios, folk songs, etc., but she was also an excellent pianist and developed an important career as a singing teacher with such respected students as Montserrat Caballé . Loyal to her teachers, she was able to impart exceptional music and perfect expression to her students and recorded several albums. Her special commitment to the world of song and oratorio music did not give her the charisma of the great opera divas. She will be remembered especially for the performances of the Catalan, Spanish and Latin American songs, as well as for the world premieres by contemporary composers. Amongst the Catalan composers, she publishes works by Enric Granados , Francesc Alió , Felip Pedrell , Pau Casals , Amadeu Vives , Enric Morera , Jaume Pahissa , Joaquim Nin Castellanos , Lluís Millet , Lamote de Grignon , Frederic Mompou , Manuel Blancafort and Joaquim Homs Montsalvatge, Joaquim Nin-Culmell , Oscar Esplà or Narcís Bonet. Spanish musicians include Manuel de Falla and Joaquín Rodrigo. And among the composers she met in exile in South America, such as Juan José Castro , Alberto Ginastera , Heitor Villa-Lobos , Carlos Guastavino and Jaime Ovalle, many dedicated their scores to her. Outstanding composers and poets open up to the new avant-garde tendencies in contemporary music and dedicate their works to the praise of the most renowned musicians, from Arnold Schönberg to Robert Gerhard . In the words of Joan Alavedra about the biography dedicated to the artist, “we all who have lived the Catalan musical life more or less intensely since the beginning of this century know what the performance of the singer Conxita Badia represents. In my opinion, she was an essential personality in relation to her kind (...). As the very first songist in our concerts, she presented the best songs by famous composers, as well as the Catalan songs by young composers. In addition, she has proven to be the best interpreter of Italian classics, German romantics, old French and Spanish composers and was irreplaceable in the performance of the great oratorios and the works of Handel , Mozart and Haydn , Beethoven , Johann Sebastian Bach , Schubert , Schumann , etc. . "

swell

  • Enciclopèdia Catalana: Concepció Badia i Millàs. In: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana. Retrieved April 27, 2019 (Catalan).
  • Enciclopèdia Catalana: Conxita Badia. In: Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música. Retrieved April 27, 2019 (Catalan).
  • Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Large singer lexicon . Electronic edition of the third, expanded edition. Bern and Munich 1999/2000. Directmedia, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-433-2 , Badia, Conchita.

Web links

Commons : Conxita Badia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Enciclopèdia Catalana, Concepció Badia i Millàs.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música, Conxita Badia.
  3. ↑ Kutsch, Riemens: Badia, Conchita.
personal data
SURNAME Badia i Millàs, Concepció
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Badia, Conxita (Catalan); Badia, Conchita (Spanish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan soprano and singing teacher
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH May 2nd 1975
Place of death Barcelona