Pauline Donalda
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 .
literature
- Merna Forster: 100 More Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. Dundurn, Toronto 2011, ISBN 978-15548-89709 , pp. 124-137
Web links
- Pauline Donalda ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
- Library and Archives Canada - The Virtual Gramophone - Pauline Lightstone Donalda
- Forgotten opera Singers - Pauline Donalda
personal data | |
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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 |