Célestine Galli-Marié
Célestine Galli-Marié (French pronunciation: [selɛstinɡalimaʁje] ; November 1840 – 22 September 1905) was a French mezzo-soprano who is most famous for creating the title role in the opera Carmen .[1]
Early life
[edit ]
She was born Marie-Célestine Laurence Marié de l'Isle[citation needed ] in November 1840 in Paris, France.[2] She was taught singing by her father, Mécène Marié de l'Isle, who also had a successful opera career. Her début came in 1859 in Strasbourg, and she sang in Italian in Lisbon.[3] At the age of fifteen she had married a sculptor named Galli (who died in 1861)[3] and thus took her stage name, Galli-Marié.[citation needed ]
Career
[edit ]Émile Perrin, the director of the Opéra-Comique, heard her performing Balfe's The Bohemian Girl at Rouen and brought her to Paris. She sang at the Opéra-Comique until 1885, premiering in Pergolesi's La serva padrona . Her most famous roles were in Thomas's Mignon (1866) and Bizet's Carmen (1875). It was said that at the 33rd performance of Carmen on 2 June 1875, Galli-Marié had a premonition of Bizet's death while singing the cards scene in Act III, and fainted when she left the stage; the composer in fact died that night and the next performance was cancelled due to her indisposition.[4] Undertaking much touring, she performed Carmen in Brussels (16 January 1876), Naples (the Italian premiere), Genoa, Barcelona, Lyon, Liege and Dieppe before returning in the Opéra-Comique revival of the original production on 22 October 1883.[3] In London she appeared at Her Majesty's Theatre in a touring production in 1886, and returned to the Opéra-Comique in 1890 to sing in a fundraising performance to erect a monument to Bizet (this was her final performance).[1]
She also created the roles of Lazarille in Don César de Bazan , Vendredi in Robinson Crusoé , the title part in Fantasio , as well as roles in Lara, Le Capitaine Henriot, Fior d'Aliza, La Petite Fadette, and Piccolino. She also sang Taven in Mireille and Rose Friquet in Les dragons de Villars .[5] [6] Sometime in the late 1860s and early 1870s she and the composer Émile Paladilhe became lovers. Curtiss notes that she kept pet marmosets, and sometimes took them to rehearsal.[3]
She died on 22 September 1905, in Vence, France.[2]
Her voice was described as being of a good timbre, with clear diction and phrasing. A high mezzo-soprano voice was at one time referred to as "Galli-Marié".[7] Galli-Marié parts are now sometimes sung by sopranos.[citation needed ]
Family
[edit ]Her sisters Irma and Paola [fr] were also professional singers. Irma created roles in L'amour chanteur in 1864 and in Les bergers in 1865; she toured the US before returning to the Paris Opéra-Comique. Paola was prominent in operetta and created roles for Charles Lecocq, appearing a great deal in the US. Galli-Marié and Irma sang together in Madeleine at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in 1869.[8]
References
[edit ]- ^ a b Wright, L. A. "Galli-Marié". In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London & New York, 1992.
- ^ a b Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1996). The concise Oxford dictionary of opera. Oxford paperback reference (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-19-280028-2.
- ^ a b c d Curtiss, M. Bizet and his World. New York: Vienna House, 1974.
- ^ Dean W. Bizet. London, JM Dent & Sons, 1978.
- ^ Soubies, A. & Malherbe, C. Histoire de l'Opéra comique – La seconde salle Favart 1840–1887. Paris: Flammarion, 1893.
- ^ Martin J. Nos artistes des theatres et concerts. Paul Ollendorff, Paris, 1895.
- ^ Moure, J. G. É. & Bouyer, A. The Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice; causes, effects and treatment. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1910.
- ^ Gänzl, K. The Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.
Further reading
[edit ]- Rosenthal, Harold (1980). "Célestine Galli-Marié". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. vii (1st ed.). London: Macmillan. p. 127.
External links
[edit ]Media related to Célestine Galli-Marié at Wikimedia Commons
