Suzanne Danco

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Suzanne Danco (born January 22, 1911 in Brussels , † August 10, 2000 in Fiesole ) was a Belgian opera singer ( soprano and mezzo-soprano ).

Life

Suzanne Danco trained at the Brussels Conservatory and won a singing competition in Vienna in 1936. After that, on the recommendation of Erich Kleiber , she was taught by Fernando Carpi in Prague. In 1940 she gave her first concerts in Italy and took part in the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence in a small part in the world premiere of the opera Volo di notte by Dallapiccola . In 1941 she appeared as a guest at the Genoa Opera as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and in 1942 she appeared again at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni , and in 1943 as Dorabella in Così fan tutte . She then sang mainly at Italian opera houses, including La Scala in Milan , where she embodied Ellen Orford (1947) in the Italian premieres of Britten's Peter Grimes and Jocasta (1948) of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex . She also appeared at the Opera of Rome and took part in concerts at La Scala, for example in Brahms' German Requiem and the Missa solemnis by Beethoven in 1947 .

In 1946 she toured Switzerland and in 1954 Australia. In 1949 she took over Donna Elvira at the Aix-en-Provence Festival , in 1950 Fiordiligi and again Donna Elvira in 1956, and in 1949 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Marie in Bergs Wozzeck . At the Glyndebourne Festival in 1948/49 she appeared as Fiordiligi and in 1951 as Donna Elvira. Fritz Busch , conductor of these Don Giovanni performances, described them with these words: "This woman, personally of marble coolness and inaccessibility, on the stage of artistic passion and flawlessness, was a rare exception in the whole of singing femininity."

Her appearances at the London Covent Garden Opera were also successful , where she made her debut as Mimi in La Bohème in 1951/52 . Her engagements have taken her to numerous other French theaters and American opera houses. In 1965 she sang Cherubino in Figaro's Wedding at the Teatro Comunale in Florence , and in 1966 Geneviève in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Maggio musicale Fiorentino .

Her major operatic roles included Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande , the title role in Nina by Paisiello , Serpetta in La serva padrona by Pergolesi , Rosina in the Barber of Seville , Norina in Don Pasquale , and Adina in L'elisir d'amore , Traviata in the opera of the same name , Elsa in Lohengrin , Eva in Meistersinger , Sophie in Rosenkavalier , Marguerite in Faust by Gounod, Leila in Les pêcheurs de perles by Bizet, the title roles in Manon by Massenet and Louise by Charpentier , Marie in Smetana's Bartered Bride , Concepcion in L'Heure espagnole by Ravel and Jocasta in Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky.

Danco was also a sought-after concert singer who received a lot of attention on her tours around the world. In 1950 she toured the USA as a lieder singer and devoted her programs primarily to French lieder by Debussy, Ravel and Gabriel Fauré . In the 1960s she ended her stage career and only appeared on concert stages, the last time in 1970 as a soloist in Mahler's 4th Symphony . Later she was a sought-after teacher at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena .

Discography (selection)

Complete recordings of the operas Pelléas et Mélisande , La damnation de Faust , Orpheus and Eurydike , Le Roi David von Honegger , Figaros Hochzeit , Don Giovanni , L'Heure espagnole , Hoffmann's stories (Antonia) and a recording with the soprano solo in the f -Moll Mass by Bruckner. She also sings the soprano part in the complete recording of the B minor Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach under George Enescu in 1951.

literature

  • Alain Pâris: Lexicon of Performers of Classical Music in the 20th Century . dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 1992, ISBN 978-3-423-03291-9 , p. 165.
  • Carl Dahlhaus, Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht and Kurt Oehl (eds.): Brockhaus-Riemann Musiklexikon . Volume 2. Schott, Mainz 1995, p. 260 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grete Busch: Fritz Busch. Conductor . S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1970, p. 326.
personal data
SURNAME Danco, Suzanne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian opera singer (soprano and mezzo-soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Brussels
DATE OF DEATH August 10, 2000
Place of death Fiesole