Obituary, Teresa Berganza (1933-2022)

Teresa Berganza, one of the greatest coloratura mezzos of the last century and a major figure in the Rossini revival, has died aged 89.

Born in Madrid in 1933, Berganza trained in her home city with Spanish soprano Lola Rodríguez Aragón, who persuaded her to embark on a singing career rather than following a religious vocation. After graduating from the Madrid Conservatory in 1954, she made her professional opera debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte at Aix-en-Provence in 1957, and sang an acclaimed Cherubino at Glyndebourne the following year. Mozart’s lovestruck page-boy became something of a signature-role in the early part of her career, thanks to her charming stage-presence and elegant phrasing, and she also enjoyed considerable success as Zerlina in Don Giovanni (notably in Joseph Losey’s 1979 film of the opera) and Sesto in La clemenza di Tito (which she recorded for István Kertész in 1967). Other early highlights included Neris in Cherubini’s Medea, with Maria Callas in the title-role, at the Dallas Opera in 1958.

In 1959, Berganza returned to Glyndebourne to sing Angelina in Rossini’s La cenerentola, and also made her first appearance at Covent Garden as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She had already sung the role of Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri on film for the RAI by this stage, and for the next few decades the composer’s three great comic heroines would become her calling-cards – her rise to fame coincided with a new wave of international interest in Rossini’s operas, and her bright, supremely flexible voice, superb comic timing and easy (but never vulgar) sensuality proved an ideal combination in that repertoire. Vocally slighter than her contemporary and fellow Rossini specialist Marilyn Horne, she made relatively sparing use of chest-voice, and never pushed her beautifully-integrated instrument beyond its natural comfort-zone – either in terms of the roles which she agreed to sing or the interpretative choices which she made within those roles.

In 1977, Berganza made a long-awaited and widely praised debut as Carmen at the Edinburgh Festival under Claudio Abbado, with whom she later recorded the opera. As preparation for the role, Berganza spent time in her home-country talking with women living in gypsy communities outside Granada; her nuanced, three-dimensional portrayal of the character on stage and on disc accordingly emphasised Carmen’s dignity, integrity and genuine erotic autonomy rather than her crowd-pleasing sex-appeal.

The process of immersing herself deeply in a character so fiercely committed to pursuing freedom and independence had a profound personal impact on Berganza, and prompted her to end her twenty-year marriage to the pianist Félix Lavillo, whom she had met whilst studying at the Madrid Conservatory and appeared with regularly in recitals and on recordings. She subsequently married José Rifá, a Spanish priest who had provided her with spiritual guidance in the aftermath of the divorce; Rifá left the priesthood in order to pursue the relationship, but returned to holy orders after they too separated.

Although Rossini and Mozart remained at the heart of Berganza’s operatic repertoire, she occasionally made other judicious forays into more dramatic waters: Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther was a role close to her heart, and she also sang an affecting Suzuki (opposite Mirella Freni’s Cio-Cio-San) on Giuseppe Sinopoli’s recording of Madama Butterfly. And that natural charm and comic timing which made her such a matchless Rosina was also deployed to great effect as the heroine of Offenbach’s La Périchole - like Carmen, a woman who lives on her wits and on the fringes of Spanish society – and the beguiling Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte.

Berganza was also a great champion of Spanish repertoire, especially the music of Manuel de Falla and Fernandino Sor, and her extensive discography includes several discs of songs from zarzuelas such as Ruperto Chapí’s Las hijas de Zebedeo, Gerónimo Giménez’s La Tempranica, and José Serrano’s La reina mora.

Berganza retired from the operatic stage in 2008, though she continued to sing occasional recitals, gave regular international masterclasses, and held a teaching position at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid; her regular pupils included Spanish soprano María Bayo and Argentinian mezzo Alicia Nafé. Her honours and prizes include the Grand Prix Rossini, the Premio Nacional de Música, and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Opera Awards in 2018. She died in San Lorenzo de El Escorial on 13th May.

Teresa Berganza - a selected discography