Pauline Donalda

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Pauline Donalda as Terlina, ca.1906

Pauline Donalda (aka Pauline Lightstone ; born March 5, 1882 in Montreal ; † October 22, 1970 ibid) was a Canadian opera singer ( soprano ) and singing teacher.

Life

The daughter of Jewish emigrants from Russia and Poland won a singing award at the age of ten and appeared in a solo performance at the first Jewish Zion Congress in Montreal in 1901 . This earned her a recommendation to Clara Lichtenstein's Royal Victoria College . However, she recommended training in Europe, and after an appraisal by experts from the Metropolitan Opera , Donald A. Smith financed her studies in Paris.

In Paris she studied singing with Edmond Duvernoy , stage technology with Paul Lhérie , speech training with Pierre Berton and Italian with Babette Rosen . In honor of her patron, she took the stage name Donalda. In 1904 she made her debut in Nice in the title role of Jules Massenet's opera Manon , supported by the composer . Among other roles, she sang Jenny in the world premiere of Ruggero Leoncavallos Chatterton and, under the composer's direction, Nedda in Pagliacci .

In 1905 Donalda made her debut at the Covent Garden Opera as Micaela in Georges Bizet's Carmen alongside Emmy Destinn and Charles Dalmorès and conducted by André Messager . In the same year she worked with Antonio Scotti and Vanni Marcoux as partners in the world premiere of Franco Leonis L'Oracolo . She represented Nellie Melba in the role of Mimi at the side of Enrico Caruso and in 1905 sang Marguerite in the production of Charles Gounod's Faust . Here she met the French baritone Paul Seveilhac , whom she married in 1906.

At the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels she appeared in 1905 as Elsa in Richard Wagner's Lohengrin and as Eva in his Meistersingern , and in 1906 she made her debut with her husband as a professional singer in Canada. With Oscar Hammerstein's Manhattan Opera Company she made her debut in New York at the end of 1906, where she appeared in Faust , Carmen , Martha , Don Giovanni , La Traviata , Lohengrin and I Pagliacci and with Nellie Melba , Emma Calvé , Alessandro Bonci , Mario Ancona , Mario Sammarco , Maurice Renaud and Charles Gilibert met.

At the end of the season she separated from Hammerstein, appeared again at the Covent Garden Opera and the Opéra-Comique in Paris and in 1910 went on a concert tour through Central Europe and Russia. During the First World War Donalda lived in Canada and worked there as a concert singer. In 1917 she returned to Paris, where she married the Danish tenor Mischa Léon in 1918 .

With him she appeared in Nice in Michael William Balfe's opera Il Talismano in 1918 . When it reopened in 1919, she last appeared in the Covent Garden Opera. In the same year she sang the Concepción in the English premiere of Maurice Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole .

From 1922 to 1937 Donalda ran a singing studio in Paris, where she taught hundreds of singers. From 1937 she directed an opera studio in Montreal. Her internationally successful students include Clarice Carson , Fernande Chiocchio , Mary Henderson , Eileen Law , Germain Lefebvre and Robert Savoie . In 1942 she founded the Opera Guild , which produced twenty-nine operas under her direction by 1969, including several Canadian premieres. In 1967 she was honored as an Officer of the Order of Canada .

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personal data
SURNAME Donalda, Pauline
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lightstone, Pauline
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian opera singer (soprano) and singing teacher
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1970
Place of death Montreal