SPANISH MEZZO TERESA BERGANZA HAS PASSED AWAY

The Paris Opera has learned with emotion the death of Tereza Berganza. The brilliant Spanish mezzo-soprano and teacher has ruled over her century with her performances of the Mozart, Rossini and Baroque repertoires. In 1957 at the Aix en Provence Festival, Mozart was her entry into the operatic world, as she sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte. On stage, in her recordings and on screen, she was one of the great ambassadors of the Salzburg master, and she was immortalized as Zerlina by Joseph Losey in his film Don Giovanni. Rolf Liebermann, director of the Paris Opera, was more than right to associate her to Giorgio Strehler's 1973 production of Le Nozze di Figaro, in which she debuted in the role of Cherubino. A role that she would then revive five times, notably with Christoph von Dohnanyi in 1980, in the same production that has become, ever since its creation, a milestone in our Institution's repertoire. Also at the Palais Garnier, in 1977, her compatriot conductor Jésús López Cobos directed her as Angelina in Rossini's La Cenerentola, another of her signature roles. That same year, she gave her voice for the first time to Carmen, which she championed at the Paris Opera in 1980 and 1982. With her performance, she contributed to a new understanding of this vulnerable and liberated woman often reduced to a seductress. A subtle musician, agile in the Cavalli, Vivaldi and Scarlatti repertoire and precise in her diction, a facetious and passionate actress, Tereza Berganza will forever remain one of the most gifted and charismatic mezzos in the history of opera.