Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet (15 August 1858 – 6 January 1942) was a French

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic soprano. Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

House, New York, and the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...

, London.

Early life

Calvé was born on 15 August 1858 in

Decazeville Decazeville ( oc, La Sala) is a commune in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie region in southern France. The commune was created in the 19th century because of the Industrial Revolution and was named after the Duke of Decazes (1780–18 ...

Aveyron Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitants ...

. Her birth name was Rosa Emma Calvet. Her father, Justin Calvet, was a civil engineer. She spent her childhood at first in Spain with her parents, then in different convent schools in

Roquefort Roquefort is a sheep milk cheese from Southern France, and is one of the world's best known blue cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, EU law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur ...

and Tournemire (Aveyron). After her parents separated, she moved with her mother to Paris. There she attempted to enter the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

, while she studied singing under Jules Puget. She started learning music in Paris from

Mathilde Marchesi Mathilde Marchesi (née Graumann; 24 March 1821 – 17 November 1913) was a German mezzo-soprano, a singing teacher, and a proponent of the bel canto vocal method. Biography Marchesi was born in Frankfurt. Her father's last name was Graumann; ...

, a retired German mezzo-soprano and Manuel García. She made a tour of Italy, where she saw the famous actress Eleonora Duse, whose impersonations made a deep impression on the young singer. She trained herself in stage craft and gesture by closely observing Duse's performances.

Career

Jean de Paleologu - Jules Massenet - Sapho

She made her operatic debut on 23 September 1881 in

Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

's ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'' at Brussels'

La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

. Later she sang at La Scala in Milan, and also at the principal theatres of Naples, Rome, and Florence. Returning to Paris in 1891, she created the part of Suzel in ''

L'amico Fritz ''L'amico Fritz'' () is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon ( Nicola Daspuro) (with additions by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti), based on the French novel ''L'ami Fritz'' by Émile Erckmann a ...

'' by

Pietro Mascagni Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece '' Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the ...

, playing and singing the role later at Rome. Because of her great success in it, she was chosen to appear as Santuzza in the French premiere of ''

Cavalleria rusticana ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play ...

'', which was viewed as one of her greatest parts. She repeated her success in it in London. In 1892, she spent six months in Rome, studying under

Sistine Chapel Choir The Sistine Chapel Choir, as it is generally called in English, or officially the Coro della Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina in Italian, is the Pope's personal choir. It performs at papal functions in the Sistine Chapel and in any other churc ...

, adding half an octave to the top of her range. Emma Calvé (1895)

Her next triumph was

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become o ...

's '' Carmen''. Before beginning the study of this part, she went to Spain, learned the Spanish dances, mingled with the people and patterned her characterization after the

cigarette girl In Europe and the United States, a cigarette girl is a person who sells or provides cigarettes from a tray held by a neck strap. They may also carry cigars and other items like candy, snacks, and chewing gum on their trays. Uniform The most ...

s whom she watched at their work and at play. In 1894, she made her appearance in the role at the Opéra-Comique, Paris. The city's opera-goers immediately hailed her as the greatest Carmen that had ever appeared, a verdict other cities would later echo. She had had many famous predecessors in the role, including

Adelina Patti Adelina Patti (19 February 184327 September 1919) was an Italian 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851, and gave her la ...

, Minnie Hauk and Célestine Galli-Marié, but critics and musicians agreed that in Calvé they had found their ideal of Bizet's cigarette girl of Seville. Calvé first appeared in America in the season of 1893–1894 as

Mignon ''Mignon'' is an 1866 ''opéra comique'' (or opera in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's 1795-96 novel '' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre''. ...

. She would make regular visits to the country, both in grand opera and in concert tours. After making her

debut as Santuzza, she went on to appear a total of 261 times with the company between 1893 and 1904. She created the part of Anita, which was written for her, in

Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884) ...

's '' La Navarraise'' in London in 1894 and, in 1897, sang '' Sapho'' in an opera written by the same composer. She sang Ophélie in

Ambroise Thomas Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas '' Mignon'' (1866) and ''Hamlet'' (1868). Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the Conservatoire de ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'' in Paris in 1899, but the part was not suited to her and she dropped it. She appeared with success in many roles, among them, as the Countess in '' The Marriage of Figaro'', the title role in Félicien David's '' Lalla-Roukh'', as Pamina in ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

'', and as Camille in Hérold's ''

Zampa ''Zampa'','' ou La fiancée de marbre'' (''Zampa, or the Marble Bride'') is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Ferdinand Hérold, with a libretto by Mélesville. The overture to the opera is one of Hérold's most famous works an ...

'', but she is best known as Carmen. Calvé's Metropolitan Opera career ended abruptly in 1904, as Irving Kolodin described in his book ''The Metropolitan Opera'' nopf 1968 She was to sing a group of Provençal songs at the Met's Sunday evening concert. Music director Felix Mottl was to accompany her at the piano. "As they were about to begin, she turned and asked him to transpose the music a tone lower. When he refused, she walked off the stage and out of the Metropolitan's history. When she reappeared in New York, it was with Hammerstein's company (1907)." Calvé developed an interest in the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

and was once engaged to the occult author

Jules Bois Henri Antoine Jules-Bois (or simply Jules Bois; 29 September 1868, Marseille – 2 July 1943, New York), was a French writer with an interest in the occult. He wrote ''Le Satanisme et la magie'' (''Satanism and Magic''). He was a noted f ...

. In the winter of 1893/1894 the Swiss-born American artist

Adolfo Müller-Ury Adolfo Müller-Ury, KSG (March 29, 1862 – July 6, 1947) was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life. Heritage and early life in Switzerland He was born Felice Adolfo Müller on 29 March ...

(1862–1947) executed a life-size portrait of her standing full-length in a green-blue dress, wearing an opera cloak of white and gold with a sable edge, clutching American Beauty roses. It is now lost, but a pastel he made of her in March 1894 has been discovered in a London private collection. Calvé,_sweet_Calvé_(NYPL_Hades-464411-1165466)

Calvé,_sweet_Calvé_(NYPL_Hades-464411-1165466)

Later life

Calvé died on 6 January 1942 at Montpellier,

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Millau. Her voice is preserved in a number of recordings made between 1902 and 1920. These are available on CD transfers.

Influences

While performing in Chicago, Calvé's only daughter died in a fire accident. This tragic incident had a serious mental toll on her. It was in this period of intense grief that she met Swami Vivekananda, who prevented her from committing suicide and restored her back to her former cheerful form. Calvé had accompanied Vivekananda as his partner along with Miss Josephine MacLeod, Sir Francis Jules Bois and his wife and Sarah Bernhard while they travelled through Europe and Egypt from 1899 to 1901. Calvé wrote of Swami Vivekananda in her autobiography: " etruly walked with God, a noble being, a saint, a philosopher and a true friend. His influence upon my spiritual life was profound ... my soul will bear him eternal gratitude". She also visited

Belur Math Belur Math () is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India. The t ...

, Swami Vivekananda's tribute to his guru

Ramakrishna Paramahansa Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...

. She said of this visit and her association with the monks there: "The hours that I spent with these gentle philosophers have remained in my memory as a time apart. These beings – pure, beautiful and remote seemed to belong to another universe, a better and wiser world" Swami Vivekananda wrote of Calvé:

She was born poor but by her innate talents, prodigious labour and diligence, and after wrestling against much hardship, she is now enormously rich and commands respect from kings and emperors. ... The rare combination of beauty, youth, talents, and "divine" voice has assigned Calve the highest place among the singers of the West. There is, indeed, no better teacher than misery and poverty. That constant fight against the dire poverty, misery, and hardship of the days of her girlhood, which has led to her present triumph over them, has brought into her life a unique sympathy and a depth of thought with a wide outlook.

Works

*Calvé, Emma: ''My Life'', Appleton. 1922. *Calvé, Emma: ''Sous tous les ciels, j'ai chanté'', Plon, Montréal 1940; (1940; I've sung under every sky): autobiography.

Chronological table

*1858 Birth of Rosa Emma Calvet in Decazeville. *1864 She attends a convent in Rodez. The sisters give some concerts where Mgr Bourret, bishop of this town appreciates her voice. *1874 Emma and her mother Léonie go up to Paris. Although they are short of money, Puget consents to give Emma lessons. *1882 Debut at the Brussels La Monnaie, as Marguerite in Charles Gounod's ''Faust''. Lessons by Mrs Marchesi, one of the most influential voice teachers of the era. *1882 end, Théodore Dubois' ''Aben Hamet'' in the Théâtre-Italien. 1883 She creates Victorin Joncières' ''Le Chevalier Jean'' in the Opéra-Comique. She sings in ''Zampa'' and ''Lalla-Roukh''. After a failure at the Scala, recommended by Gounod, she took lessons from Rosine Laborde. In Rome she took lessons from

Domenico Mustafà Domenico Mustafà (16 April 1829 – 17 March 1912) was an Italian castrato singer, composer and choir director. Life Domenico Mustafà was born in the comune of Sellano,L'éclair''. *1890 May, Milan. Triumph in the Scala with ''Hamlet''. *1890 She creates ''Cavalleria rusticana'' in Florence. She sings in Rome, then in Naples. *1891 November: French premiere of ''Cavalleria rusticana'' at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. *1892 Travel in Spain; November: great success in ''Carmen'' at the Opéra-Comique. *1893 ''Carmen'' in London's Covent Garden, and in Windsor by Queen Victoria. September: she leaves for the United States. ''Carmen'' in the

in New York, then in Boston, Chicago and Montreal. *1894 July: she buys the medieval castle of Cabrières. *1895 October: she creates Massenet's ''La Navarraise'' in Paris; Tour in Russia: Saint Petersburg, performance in front of the tsar. *1896 November: creation of Massenet's ''Sapho'', with a libretto from a novel of Alphonse Daudet. *1899–1900 Travel in Orient along with Swami Vivekananda *1902 She creates in the Opéra-Comique

Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn (; 9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – '' mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born in Caracas ...

's ''La Carmélite''. *1903 April: Hector Berlioz's ''La Damnation de Faust''. *1904 October: in the Gaîté, Massenet's ''Hérodiade''. *1906 Germany and Austria *1910–1912 Travel around the world *1914 July: Berlin December: 4th tour in the United States *1915 USA *1916 Benefit concerts in Montpellier, Marseille, Toulon, Nice and

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

, for the Red Cross. *1919 For the last time in the Opéra-Comique. English tour with tenor

Vladimir Rosing Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United ...

and pianist Arthur Rubinstein. *1920 She records for

Pathé Records Pathé Records was an international record company and label and producer of phonographs, based in France, and active from the 1890s through the 1930s. Early years The Pathé record business was founded by brothers Charles and Émile Pathé ...

. *1922 Tour in England, Scotland and Ireland, with Alfred Cortot and

Jacques Thibaud Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French violinist. Biography Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won th ...

. *1925 5th tour in the USA. *1925 She retired from the stage. She returned in her beloved

Midi MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

to teach, living in different houses in Millau and surroundings. *1942 6 January – dies in a clinic in Montpellier, aged 83.

Discography

*in ''Les Introuvables du Chant Français'' EMI, 2005; *''Emma Calve: the Complete Victor Recordings (1907–16)'', Romophone CD 81024-2.

References

Notes Bibliography *Contrucci, Jean: ''Emma Calvé, la diva du siècle'', Albin Michel 1989, *Girard, Georges: ''Emma Calvé : étoile dans tous les cieux, cigale sous tous les ciels'', Rodez : Cahiers rouergats, 1971; No de :"Les Cahiers rouergats", 1971, ISSN 0184-5365, n °5, 1971 *Girard, Georges: ''Emma Calvé, la cantatrice sous tous les ciels'', Éditions Grands Causses * * *Prévost, M.: ''Dictionnaire de biographie française'', vol. 7, Letouzey, 1956

External links

Liner notes from ''The Complete 1902 G&T, 1920 Pathé and "Mapleson Cylinder" Recordings''

Emma Calvé recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Calve, Emma 1858 births 1942 deaths People from Aveyron French operatic sopranos Metropolitan Opera people 19th-century French women opera singers 20th-century French women opera singers Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Belle Époque