MARIA
CEBOTARI (CIUBOTARU)
(b.
February 1910 Kishinev d. June 1949 Vienna)
Soprano
leggero lirico e drammatico !
Maria
Cebotari in 1935
As
a little girl and member of a choir, she sang solos in the
local church. Later, while studying at the conservatory of
Kishinev (Moldavia), she met Count Alexander Wiruboff, manager
of the Moscow Theatre, who took her on a tour of Paris. Not
yet sixteen years old, she married him despite he was a much
older man with a temper, a passion for drinking and gambling.
In
1929 they went to Berlin, where she was recommended by Max
von Schilling to a good singing teacher, Oscar Daniel. After
short and very intensive studies (she also managed to learn
the German language in minimum time), she was noticed by Fritz
Bush, Musical Director of the Dresden State Opera, who gave
her a three year contract in 1930.
She
debuted in April 1931 as Mimi in La Boheme at the
Dresden Theatre and was an instant success. Soon, Bruno Walter
engaged her to sing Amor in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice
at the Salzburg Festival in company of well known singers,
Sigrid Onegin and Maria Muller. Her career blossomed and soon
after Salzburg she sang in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Bucharest,
Zurich, Milan, Rome, Stockholm, Prague, Basel, Bern and Amsterdam.
In
1934, just aged 24, she received the title of ‘Die Kammersangerin',
a title usually reserved for mature singers. In 1935 she started
as a movie actress as well, and made a few films, like ‘Madchen
in Weiss' and ‘Starke Herzen'. While on the set for the latter
film, she met her future husband (she had divorced Count Wiruboff,
then an addicted alcoholic) Gustav Diessl, an Austrian movie
matinee idol.
Cebotari
married him in 1938. She also made a few films with Beniamino
Gigli, who was her frequent co-star. In 1939 she portrayed
Madama Butterfly and in 1942 a film on Maria Malibran, the
diva who in 1830 started out on a legendary operatic career
cut short by an untimely death. In 1942 she made her last
film entitled ‘Flammen uber Odessa'.
In
1936, she sang at Covent Garden as Zerlina, Susanna and Sophie
and in 1947 as Countess Almaviva and Donna Anna. She resided
for a long time in Berlin and was invited by Karl Bohm to
sing at the first post war Salzburg Festival in Die Entfuhrung
aus dem Serail with Julius Patzak and Ludwig Weber.
Cebotari was also very successful as an operetta, oratorio
and recital singer. Her voice was always solid and secure,
despite her personal tragedy.
Violetta
(La
Traviata)
|
Salome
(Salome)
|
Sophie
(Der
Rosenkavalier)
|
Cio-Cio-San
(Madama
Butterfly)
|
She
had the rare gift of bringing drama and musicality to the
suffering heroines she portrayed. Her magnetic stage presence
made her the darling of audiences. She was a superstar of
her time. After her house in Berlin was bombed and destroyed
in 1943, she moved to Austria and was contracted by the Vienna
State Opera. This theatre also was destroyed during WWII and
Maria had to sing at the Volksoper and Theater am der Wien,
or go on tours with the Company.
On
these tours, she appeared chiefly with Richard Tauber. The
sad irony was that both singers were gravely ill. Cebotari
was diagnosed with an incurable liver cancer and didn't have
long time to live. Her husband with whom she had two children
died after a series of strokes in 1948 and she told her best
friends that she could not continue to live without him.
In
October 1947, Maria sang a memorable performance in Ariadne
auf Naxos at the London's Strauss Festival, Sir Thomas
Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
She
sang for the last time on the stage in Vienna, in the role
of Laura from the operetta ‘Der Bettelstudent'. Maria Cebotari
passed away on 9 June 1949. She is buried at the Doblinger
Friehof Cemetery of Vienna. Her two little sons were lately
adopted by the British pianist Sir Clifford Curzon.
Cebotari
premiered Richard Strauss' opera Die schweigsame Frau,
singing Aminta, the title role. Strauss was her admirer
and she became his great Salome. Her repertoire was unusually
vast: Butterfly, Salome,Turandot, Susanna, Zerlina, Sophie,
Countess Almaviva, Konstanze, Daphne, Mimi, Aminta, Carmen
as a mezzo, Olympia, Maddalena, Antonia and Giulietta in Les
Contes d'Hoffmann, Tatyana, Violetta, Arabella, Donna
Anna and Euridice.
Her
most important roles were Violetta in La Traviata (Violetta
was her great triumph, singing the role with ease and freedom,
which does justice to coloratura), Gilda in Rigoletto
and the title role in Luisa Miller. Maria
sang with great success also in Italy, where she was applauded
at La Scala, La Fenice in Venice and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
She was a very busy singer, with engagements all over European
opera houses, which prevented her from accepting invitations
from America.
Audio
files *
Audio
5 Der Zigeunerbaron –
So
Elend und…sung by Maria Cebotari in 1943
Audio
6 La Boheme –
O
soave fanciulla sung by Maria Cebotari and Peter
Anders in 1944
Audio
7 Le nozze di Figaro –
Deh
vieni, non tardar sung by Maria Cebotari in
1938
Audio
8 Madama Butterfly –
Un
bel di vedremo sung by Maria Cebotari in 1941
*
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(l.s.
and d.t.)
Comment
I
remember that my first memory of Cebotari's voice was her
Suzanna's “Deh vieni, non tardar” (audio 3). What an excellent
technique, what a perfect blend between registers and what
a nice mezzo colour in her voice! I did not know at that time
that she sang Carmen or Turandot but I felt that she could
sing anything. Indeed she could. If she had lived long enough,
she could have been one of the outstanding German sopranos
of the 50's long before Elisabeth Schwartzkopf. Well, we don't
know what could have been but we certainly know that Cebotari
was a great God given talent and she burnt for art till the
end.
(d.t.)
Reflections
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”There
is one thing to be said for glory - you can take glory with
you, when it is your time to go”