Maria Gay (12 June 1876Spanish Civil Registry, Barcelona
year 1876, entry number 2932
– 29 July 1943) was a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...

opera singer, a

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

born as Maria de Lourdes Lucia Antonia Pichot Gironés. She has sometimes been referred to as Maria Gay Zenatello.

Biography

According to one story, young Maria was arrested for singing revolutionary or nationalist songs. She defiantly continued to sing them in prison, with a voice so fine she was offered a chance to study

bel canto Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

. She was a singing pupil of soprano Ada Adini. In 1897, she married the Catalan composer , with whom she had two daughters and a son, all of whom died young: her daughters of illness as teenagers and her son in the war. In 1902, she debuted in the title role of ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'' in Brussels. She was a hit in the role and became one of the best regarded interpreters of "Carmen" of her era. She reportedly shocked and mesmerized audiences, portraying the gypsy girl as an impudent, magnetic, but coarse and unrefined peasant, eating an orange and spitting out the seeds before singing the famous Habanera. In 1906, she debuted at Milan's

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, where she met tenor

Giovanni Zenatello Giovanni Zenatello (22 February 1876 – 11 February 1949) was an Italian opera singer. Born in Verona, he enjoyed an international career as a dramatic tenor of the first rank. Otello became his most famous operatic role but he sang a wide r ...

. Gay and Zenatello would live together the rest of their lives, and were often described as husband and wife, although they may never actually have gotten married, and legally Maria Gay may still have been married to Joan Gay Planella until his death in 1926. In 1908, she made her debut in ''Carmen'' for the Met in New York City opposite Geraldine Farrar as Micaela. In 1910 she performed the same role with the

Boston Opera Company The Boston Opera Company (BOC) was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts, that was active from 1909 to 1915. History The company was founded in 1908 by Bostonian millionaire Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr. and impresario Henry Rus ...

as Carmen. She made a series of gramophone records for the Columbia Phonograph Company. Gay and Zenatello worked to find, help train, and promote promising young singers. Their most famous find was Lily Pons, who the couple managed until Pons and the couple had a falling-out. Gay and Zenatello set up a home in Manhattan, New York City in 1936, where she lived the rest of her life. She died on 20 July 1943. Maria Gay was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

References

External links

Maria Gay's discography can be searched at the National Library of Catalonia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Maria 1876 births 1943 deaths Opera singers from Catalonia 20th-century Spanish women opera singers 19th-century Spanish women opera singers Operatic mezzo-sopranos Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery