Maria Cebotari

2025-07-23T12:09:57Z

2A02:2F00:400:F900:8D9B:8DE2:5067:B07C:

{{Short description|Romanian singer (1910–1949)}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Maria cebotari pic.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| image_size =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = 10 February 1910
| birth_place = [[Chișinău]], [[Bessarabia Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Moldova]])
| death_date = {{death-date and age|9 June 1949|10 February 1910}}
| death_place = [[Vienna]], [[Austria]]
| nationality = [[Romanians|Romanian]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.punkt.md/revista/citeste/articol/in_hac_habitasse_platea_dictumst/nb/1/nc/3.html|title=Aria care a suparat-o pe Maria Biesu|first=de|last=PUNKT|date=July 22, 2013}}</ref>
| citizenship =
| occupation = Opera singer (lyric coloratura soprano)
| years_active = 1931–1949
| spouse = Alexander Virubov (1929–1938)<br />[[Gustav Diessl]] (1938–1948)
| website =
}}
'''Maria Cebotari''' (original name: '''Ciubotaru''',<ref>Iosif Constantin Drăgan, Prin Europa, Vol. 3
Editura Eminescu, 1980, p.89</ref> 10 February 1910 – 9 June 1949<ref name=:0>{{cite web |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6945492/maria-cebotari |title=Maria Cebotari |last=Polt |first=Rudi |website=Find a Grave |access-date=2024-11-29}}</ref>) was a [[Bessarabia]]n-born [[Romanians|Romanian]] [[lyric soprano]] who made her career in Germany. She was widely known as a [[soprano]] by the mid 1930s and noted in particular for her wide range of repertoire.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19361022&id=cfhYAAAAIBAJ&pg=6128,3417555|title=The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=140&dat=19480207&id=_BguAAAAIBAJ&pg=1111,807078|title=La Patrie - Google News Archive Search|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="google.com">{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19740411&id=zocxAAAAIBAJ&pg=1247,3320478|title=The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1706&dat=19401113&id=OUkdAAAAIBAJ&pg=6170,4878091|title=El Tiempo - Google News Archive Search|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.steffi-line.de/archiv_text/nost_buehne/03c_cebotari.htm|title=Maria Cebotari|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016}}</ref>

[[Beniamino Gigli]] stated that Cebotari was one of the greatest female voices he had ever heard.<ref name="ku-spiegel.de">{{cite web|url=http://ku-spiegel.de/portraits/a-bis-j/cebotari/|title=Klaus Ulrich Spiegel - Cebotari|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618180639/http://ku-spiegel.de/portraits/a-bis-j/cebotari/|archive-date=18 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Maria Callas]] was compared to her,<ref name="google.com"/> and [[Angela Gheorghiu]] named Maria Cebotari among the artists she admires the most.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.formula-as.ro/2000/400/lumea-romaneasca-24/lumea-romaneasca-1224|title=Lumea romaneasca - Lumea romaneasca - Numarul 400 - Anul 2000 - Arhiva|website=www.formula-as.ro|accessdate=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220101203/http://www.formula-as.ro/2000/400/lumea-romaneasca-24/lumea-romaneasca-1224|archive-date=20 December 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

With thousands of people in attendance, her funeral was "one of the most imposing demonstrations of love and honor any deceased artist has ever received" in the history of [[Vienna]].<ref name="ku-spiegel.de"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classicalcdreview.com/cebotari.htm |title=MARIA CEBOTARI |accessdate=11 December 2016 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220111436/http://www.classicalcdreview.com/cebotari.htm |archivedate=20 December 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/583646?q=&xf%5B0%5D=CustomPlace&xo%5B0%5D=EQUALS&xv%5B0%5D=Wimbledon|title=Welt im Film 214/1949 – Films at the German Federal Archive|publisher=|accessdate=11 December 2016}}</ref>

==Biography==
{{Refimprove section|date=November 2024}}
Cebotari was born in Chişinău, Bessarabia, and studied singing at the Chişinău Conservatory in 1910.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SHORT STORY: Maria Cebotari, an artist caught in an ideological battle – WEMov, Women on the move |url=https://www.womenonthemove.eu/short-story-maria-cebotari-an-artist-caught-in-an-ideological-battle/ |access-date=2024-11-20 |language=fr-FR}}</ref> In 1929, she joined the [[Moscow Art Theater]] Company as an actress. Shortly after, she married the company's leader, Alexander Virubov.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maria Cebotari Street {{!}} Chisinau |url=https://visit.chisinau.md/en/audio/str-maria-cebotari/ |access-date=2024-11-20 |website=Visit Chișinău |language=en-US}}</ref>

She soon moved to [[Berlin]] with the company and studied singing with Oskar Daniel for three months.<ref name=:1>{{cite web |url=http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Cebotari__Maria/cebotari__maria.html |title=Maria Cebotari |website=Cantabile Subito |access-date=2024-11-29}}</ref> She made her debut as an operatic singer as Mimi in ''[[La Bohème]]'' at [[Dresden]] [[Semperoper]] on 15 March 1931. [[Bruno Walter]] invited her to the [[Salzburg Festival]], where she sang [[Euridice]] in [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]]'s opera ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kulturstiftung.org/biographien/cebotari-cebotaru-maria-2 |title=Maria Cebotari |last=Hinz |first=Thorsten |website=Kulturstiftung |access-date=2024-11-29}}</ref>

In 1935, she sang the part of [[Aminta]] in the world premiere of [[Richard Strauss]]' opera ''[[Die Schweigsame Frau]]'' under [[Karl Böhm]] at Dresden Semper Opera House. Strauss advised her to move to Berlin, and in 1936 she joined the [[Berlin State Opera]], where she was a [[prima donna]] until 1946. That year, she sang Susanna in ''[[The Marriage of Figaro|Le Nozze di Figaro]]'', Zerlina in ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', and Sophie in ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' for the Dresden Semper Opera Company's performances at Covent Garden [[Royal Opera House]] of [[London]]. Cebotari appeared at many opera houses, including the [[Vienna State Opera]] and [[La Scala]] Opera House of [[Milan]].

In 1938, she divorced Virubov and married the Austrian actor [[Gustav Diessl]], with whom she had two sons.<ref name=:1/> In 1946, she left [[Berlin]] and joined the Vienna State Opera House. The next year, she revisited Covent Garden with the Vienna State Opera Company and sang [[Salome (opera)|Salome]], Donna Anna in ''Don Giovanni,'' and Countess Almaviva in ''Le Nozze di Figaro''. On September 27 of that year, she was Donna Anna to the Ottavio of [[Richard Tauber]], in his final stage appearance less than a week before his cancerous left lung was removed.

In early 1949, she suffered severe pain during the performance of ''Le Nozze di Figaro'' at La Scala Opera House. At first, doctors did not consider it serious. However, on 31 March 1949, she collapsed during the performance of [[Karl Millöcker]]'s operetta ''Der Bettelstudent'' in Vienna. During surgery on 4 April, doctors found cancer in her liver and pancreas. She died from cancer on 9 June 1949 in Vienna.<ref name=:0/> British pianist [[Clifford Curzon]] and his wife [[Lucille Wallace]] adopted her two sons.

Cebotari had a versatile voice; her repertoire covered [[coloratura]], [[soubrette]], lyric, and dramatic roles, as is illustrated in her performance history. She concentrated on four composers: [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], and [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]. Richard Strauss described her as "the best all-rounder on the European stage, and she is never late, and she never cancels". During a BBC interview decades after her death, Herbert von Karajan said she was the greatest "Madame Butterfly" he had ever conducted.

==Films==
Along with her successful career at the opera houses, Cebotari appeared in several operatic films, such as ''Verdi's Three Women'', ''Maria Malibran'', and ''The Dream of Madame Butterfly''.<ref name=:0/>

Cebotari also was cast in the film ''[[Odessa in fiamme]]'' (''Odessa in Flames'') in 1942, directed by Italian director [[Carmine Gallone]] with the script by Nicolae Kiriţescu. The movie is a fascist propaganda film about the Battle of Odessa, which was won by Romanian and Nazi troops. The Romanian-Italian co-production won at the Festival of Venice in 1942.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/43396317/_Odessa_in_fiamme_reflejos_cinematogr%C3%A1ficos_de_la_guerra_en_el_Frente_Oriental |title=Odessa in fiamme: reflejos cinematográficos de la guerra en el Frente Oriental |last=Burcea |first=Carmen |date=2016 |publisher=Revista de Filología Románica |website=Academia.edu |language=es |access-date=2024-11-29}}</ref>
In the film, Cebotari plays the role of Maria Teodorescu, an opera singer from Bessarabia, in Chisinau with her eight-year-old son at the time of the invasion. Her husband fights as a captain in the Romanian army in Bucharest, and her son is taken. Teodorescu is informed that her son will be kept in a camp and trained to be a Soviet man. Teodorescu consents to perform Russian music in theatres and taverns in exchange for her son's return. By chance, her spouse discovers her photo, and the family gets back together.

''Odessa in Flames'' was banned after Soviet troops reached Bucharest. {{citation needed|date=May 2025}} The film was later rediscovered in the [[Cinecittà]] archives in Rome,{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} where it was screened for the first time in years in Romania in December 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://culturaromena.it/odessa-in-fiammee-1942-coproduzione-italo-romena/ |title=Odessa in Flames (1942): Italo-Romanian Co-production |date=2010-09-08 |website=Cultura Romena |language=it |access-date=2024-11-29}}</ref>

Director Vlad Druc's documentary "Aria" (2005) about the life of Maria Cebotari faced difficulties when screening in Moldova during the Communist administration (which ended in 2009). This was due to a part in the movie where the soprano self-identifies as Romanian, contrary to the official policy of the Communist government that called the ethnic majority Moldovan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zdg.md/reporter-special/oameni/cantareata-zburatoare/|title=Cântăreaţa zburătoare – Ziarul de Gardă|website=www.zdg.md}}</ref>

==Recordings==
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Many of her surviving recordings are from live performances, either in opera houses or radio broadcasts. Almost all have now been digitally remastered.

The Austrian CD label ''[[Preiser Records]]'' has issued several of her CDs, among which is ''The Art of Maria Cebotari'' and ''Maria Cebotari singt Richard Strauss''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maria Cebotari Singt Richard Strauss |url=https://music.apple.com/us/album/maria-cebotari-singt-richard-strauss/315115576 |access-date=17 February 2023 |website=Apple Music}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Art of Maria Cebotari |url=https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-art-of-maria-cebotari/309739416 |access-date=17 February 2023 |website=Apple Music}}</ref>
* Mozart – ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (Böhm 1938, in German/Ahlersmeyer, Teschemacher, Schöffler, Wessely, Böhme) Preiser
* Puccini – ''Turandot'' (Keilberth 1938, in German/Hauss, Buchta, Hann, Eipperle, Harlan, Schupp, Kiefer), Koch-Schwann
* [[Othmar Schoeck|Schoeck]] – ''Das Schloss Dürande'' (Heger live 1943, excerpts/Anders, Berglund, Fuchs, Domgraf-Fassbaender, Greindl, Hüsch), Jecklin
* R. Strauss – ''Salome'' (Krauss 1947 live/Rothmüller, Höngen), Gebhardt
* R. Strauss – ''Taillefer'' ([[Artur Rother|Rother]] 1944/ Walter Ludwig, [[Hans Hotter]]), Preiser
* Verdi – ''Luisa Miller'' (Elmendorff 1944, in German/Böhme, Hopf, Hann, Herrmann, Eipperle), Preiser
* Verdi – ''La traviata'' (Steinkopf 1943, in German/Rosvaenge, Schlusnus), Iron Needle
* [[Gottfried von Einem|von Einem]] – ''Dantons Tod'' ([[Fricsay]] live 1947/Schöffler, Patzak, Klein, Weber, Alsen, Hann), Stradivarius
* Recital (Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo, J. Strauss, Arditi, Rachmaninov, Beckmann, Mackeben, Tchaikovsky), Preiser – LV
* Recital – Maria Cebotari singt Arien (Mozart, J. Strauss, Gounod, Puccini and R. Strauss), Preiser – LV
* Maria Cebotari – Arien, Duette, Szenen (Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini), Preiser
* Recital – Maria Cebotari singt Richard Strauss (''Salome'', ''Feuersnot'', ''Der Rosenkavalier'', ''Daphne'', ''Taillefer''), Preiser (Berliner Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester, [[Artur Rother]], 1–4 recorded 1943, 5 in 1944).
* Maria Cebotari: Arias, Songs and in Film, Weltbild
* Recital – Maria Cebotari singt Giuseppe Verdi (''La traviata'', ''Rigoletto''), Preiser
* Four Famous Sopranos of the Past (Gitta Alpar, [[Jarmila Novotná]] and [[Esther Réthy]]), Preiser – LV
* Bruno Walter Vol. 1, Symphony No 2 and No 4 (1948/50), LYS
* [[Helge Rosvaenge]] in Szenen aus ''André Chénier'' und ''Rigoletto'' – Duets, Preiser
* Helge Rosvaenge – Duets, Preiser – LV
* Grosse Mozartsänger Vol. 1 1922 – 1942, Orfeo
* Von der Königlichen Hofoper zur Staatsoper ‘Unter den Linden’, Preiser – LV

==Filmography==
* ''[[Troika (1930 film)|Troika]]'' (1930)
* ''[[Girls in White]]'' (1936)
* ''[[Mother Song]]'' (1937)
* ''Strong Hearts'' (1937)
* ''[[Giuseppe Verdi (film)|Giuseppe Verdi]]'' (1938)
* ''[[The Dream of Butterfly]]'' (1939)
* ''[[Love Me, Alfredo!]]'' (1940)
* ''[[Odessa in Flames]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Maria Malibran (film)|Maria Malibran]]'' (1943)

==Sources==
{{reflist}}
*{{cite book |first=Alain |last=Pâris |title=Le dictionnaire des interprètes |publisher=Robert Laffont |isbn=978-2-221-10214-5 |date=14 October 2004}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0147526|name=Maria Cebotari}}
* {{Find a Grave|6945492}}
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=2390 Photographs and literature]
* [http://www.moldovastamps.org/catalogue_xmod_stamp.asp?stampID=364 MoldovaStamps.org 1994 postage stamp of the Republic of Moldova – Maria Cebotari]
* {{YouTube|kAfrWDBHPMQ|Maria sings the aria Sempre Libera from "La traviata"-Verdi}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cebotari, Maria}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Döbling Cemetery]]
[[Category:Musicians from Chișinău]]
[[Category:People from Kishinyovsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Moldovan opera singers]]
[[Category:Romanian operatic sopranos]]
[[Category:Austrian operatic sopranos]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Moldova]]
[[Category:Romanian emigrants to Austria]]
[[Category:Romanian people of Moldovan descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Romanian women opera singers]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian women opera singers]]
[[Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Austria]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer in Austria]]
[[Category:Actors from Chișinău]]

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Maria Cebotari