Hariclea Darclée
Encyclopedia
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
. She possessed an agile, powerful, and beautiful voice that was wielded with a fine technique. An extremely beautiful woman, Darclée's stage presence was as elegant and refined as her singing. Although universally admired, she displayed a coldness of temperament that at times diminished her conviction in the more passionate verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
repertory. A singer of prodigous talent, her repertoire ranged from coloratura soprano
Coloratura soprano
A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano who specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs and leaps. The term coloratura refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, which is a typical component of the music written for this voice...
roles to heavier Verdi roles, including many in the Franco-Italian lyric repertory. Throughout her career she participated in several world premieres, including originating the title roles in Puccini's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, Mascagni's Iris
Iris (opera)
Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times...
, and Catalani's La Wally
La Wally
La Wally is a four-act opera by Alfredo Catalani, composed on a libretto by Luigi Illica, and first performed at La Scala, Milan on 20 January 1892....
.
Career
Darclée was born in BrăilaBraila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...
to a family with Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
roots. Her father, Ion Haricli, was a landlord in the Teleorman district. Her mother, born Aslan, was a relative of the noble Mavrocordatos family. The family lived for a while in the town of Turnu Măgurele
Turnu Magurele
Turnu Măgurele is a city in Teleorman County, Romania . Developed nearby the site once occupied by the medieval port of Turnu, it is situated north-east of the confluence between the Olt River and the Danube....
in southern Romania. She began her studies at Conservatoire of music
George Enescu University of Arts of Iaşi
The George Enescu University of Arts is a public university in Iaşi, Romania, founded in 1860. Its focus was remodelled in 1992. Due to the reunion of the Conservatory of music and dramatic art and the National Society of Fine Arts, the institution was regrouped to focus on plastic arts, theatre...
in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, making her professional appearances as a concert performer in 1884. She continued her studies in Paris under Jean-Baptiste Faure
Jean-Baptiste Faure
Jean-Baptiste Faure was a celebrated French operatic baritone and an art collector of great significance. He also composed a number of classical songs.-Singing career:Faure was born in Moulins...
. She married a young officer, Iorgu Hartulari, and became known for a while as Hariclea Hartulari-Darclée, Darclée being the nom de théâtre she adopted when she made her debut at the Paris Opéra in 1888 as Marguerite in Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
. In 1889, she replaced Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 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 last performance before an audience in 1914...
as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, to increasing acclaim.
In 1890 Darclée scored a great success in her La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
debut as Chimène in Massenet’s Le Cid
Le Cid (opera)
Le Cid is an opera in four acts and ten tableaux by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet, Édouard Blau and Adolphe d'Ennery. It is based on the play of the same name by Pierre Corneille....
, and was immediately engaged by all the leading Italian theatres. Highlights of her later career in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
from 1890 on included the world-premières of the part of Odalea in Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes
Antônio Carlos Gomes was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe.-Life:He was born in Campinas, Brazil, son of Maestro Manuel José Gomes and Fabiana Maria Jaguari Cardoso....
' Condor at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1891, the title-role in Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas Loreley and La Wally...
's La Wally
La Wally
La Wally is a four-act opera by Alfredo Catalani, composed on a libretto by Luigi Illica, and first performed at La Scala, Milan on 20 January 1892....
at the same theater in 1892, Luisa in Mascagni's I Rantzau
I Rantzau
I Rantzau is an opera in four acts by Pietro Mascagni , based on a libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on the play Les Rantzau by French writers Erckmann and Chatrian, after their novel Les Deux Frères .It was first performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence,...
at the Teatro della Pergola
Teatro della Pergola
The Teatro della Pergola is a historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name...
in 1892, and the title roles in Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Iris
Iris (opera)
Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times...
and Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, both at Teatro Costanzi
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1899 and 1900, respectively. Between 1893 and 1910 she appeared frequently in Moscow, St Petersburg, Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid and Buenos Aires. She was very popular in Spain and South America, where she participated in many local premières of new operas by Puccini, Mascagni and Massenet. Among the many roles she portrayed are Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Ophélie in Hamlet
Hamlet (opera)
Hamlet is an opéra in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas, père and Paul Meurice of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.- Ophelia mania in Paris:...
, Valentine in Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
, Violetta in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, Desdemona in Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
, Mimì in La boheme
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, and the title roles in Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost....
, Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, and Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. The last performance of her career was as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
at the Teatro Lirico in Milan in 1918.
Darclée was the mother of composer Ion Hartulary Darclée (1886–1969) who was known particularly as a writer of operettas. Both she and her son are buried at Bellu
Bellu
Bellu is the most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu...
cemetery, in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
.
Started in 1997, the Hariclea Darclée National Voice Competition is held every two years in Brăila.
Repertory
- Hariclea Darclée sang 58 roles on 56 operas (32 operas of tradition, 12 in absolute première and 16 operas in important premières) by 31 composers (12 composers of the tradition and 19 young composers with new operas interpreted in absolute première); this artist occupies a singular position in the universal history of the opera:
Daniel Auber La Muette de Portici (Luisa);
Georges Bizet Carmen (Carmen);
Arrigo Boito Mefistofele (Margherita);
Alfredo Catalani La Wally (Wally) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro Alla Scala of Milan on 20 January 1892;
Alexis Catargi Enoch Arden (Ammie Lee) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Bucharest National Thatre in 1904;
Isidore De Lara Amy Robsard (Amy Robsard) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Montecarlo Opera in April 1897;
Gaetano Donizetti Don Pasquale (Norina);
Gaetano Donizetti L’elisir d’amore (Adina);
Gaetano Donizetti Linda di Chamounix (Linda);
Gaetano Donizetti Lucrezia Borgia (Lucrezia);
Gaetano Donizetti Maria di Rohan (Maria);
Alberto Franchetti Cristoforo Colombo (Isabella di Aragona, Ikuamota) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Genova, on 6 October 1892;
Michail Glinka Ivan Susanin (Vania) – opera interpreted in première for France, at Nice in 1890;
Carlos Gomes Condor (Odalea) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro alla Scala of Milan on 21 February 1891;
Carlos Gomes I Guarany (Cecilia);
Charles Gounod Faust (Marguérite);
Charles Gounod Roméo et Juliette (Juliette);
Jacques Halévy La Juive (Rachèle);
Ruggero Leoncavallo I Pagliacci (Nedda) – opera interpreted in première for Romania at Bucharest National Theatre in 1903;
Ruggero Leoncavallo Zaza (Zaza);
Luigi Mancinelli Hero e Leandro (Hero) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Madrid, in 1897;
Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana (Santuzza) – oper interpreted in première for Romania at Bucharest National Theatre in 1891;
Pietro Mascagni L’amico Fritz (Suzel) – opera interpreted in première for Teatro Della Pergole of Florence in 1891 and for Bucharest National Theatre in 1910;
Pietro Mascagni Iris (Iris) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro dell’Opera of Rome, on 22 January 1898, in première for Teatro alla Scala di Milano on 19 January 1899 and in première for Bucharest National Theatre in 1908;
Pietro Mascagni I Rantzau (Luisa) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro Delle Pergole of Florence on 10 November 1892 and in première for Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 26 November 1892;
Jules Massenet Le Cide (Chimène) – the debut in Italy and the première for Teatro alla Scala of Miland on 26 December 1890;
Jules Massenet Manon (Manon);
Jules Massenet Thaïs (Thaïs);
Giacomo Meyerbeer L’Africaine (Selika);
Giacomo Meyerbeer Les Huguénots (Regina, Valentine) – the première for Romania at Bucharest National Theatre in 1897;
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni (Zerlina);
Giovanni Pacini Saffo (Saffo) – première for Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 28 October 1911;
Ubaldo Pacchierotti Eidelberga mia (Catina) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires in 1909;
Ettore Panizza Aurora (Aurora) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires in 1909;
Giacomo Puccini Manon Lescaut (Manon Lescaut) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in première for Teatro alla Scala of Milan on 27 March 1897;
Giacomo Puccini La Bohème (Mimì) – opera interpreted in première for America at Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires in 1896 and in première for Romania at Bucharest National Theatre on 15 January 1903;
Giacomo Puccini Tosca (Floria Tosca) – opera composed for her voice; the Soprano’s aria was requested to Puccini by Hariclea Darclée suggesting too the principal musicals elements; the opera was interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 14 January 1900 and in première at Teatro Regio of Turin on 20 February 1900, Teatro alla Scala of Milan on 17 March 1900, Lisbon on 19 January 1901, Bucharest National Theatre on 18 January 1902 and Montecarlo Opera on 28 March 1903;
Luigi & Federico Ricci Crispini e la Comare (La Comare);
Gioacchino Rossini Guglielmo Tell (Matilde d’Absburgo);
Gioacchino Rossini Stabat Mater (Soprano);
Anton Rubinstein Damon (Tamara);
Camille Saint-Saëns Proserpina (Proserpina);
Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier (Marschalin) – première for Italy at Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 14 November 1911;
Ambroise Thomas Hamlet (Ofélie);
Ambroise Thomas Mignon (Mignon);
Pietro Vallini Il Voto (Maria) – opera composed for her voice and interpreted in prima assoluta at Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 27 November 1894;
Giuseppe Verdi Aida (Aida);
Giuseppe Verdi Un ballo in maschera (Amelia);
Giuseppe Verdi Otello (Desdemona);
Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto (Gilda);
Giuseppe Verdi Simon Boccanegra (Amelia-Maria) – première for Teatro dell’Opera of Rome on 17 May 1892;
Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata (Violetta Valery);
Giuseppe Verdi Il Trovatore (Leonora);
Richard Wagner Die Meistersänger (Eva);
Richard Wagner Lohengrin (Elsa);
Richard Wagner Tannhäuser (Elisabeth) – première for Italy at Teatro alla Scala of Milan on 29 December 1891 and for Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires in 1897;
Recordings
She made only a handful of recordings for FonotipiaFonotipia Records
Fonotipia Records, or Dischi Fonotipia, was an Italian gramophone record label established in 1904 with a charter to record the art of leading opera singers and some other celebrity musicians, chiefly violinists. Fonotipia continued to operate into the electrical recording era, which commenced in...
in 1905, all exceedingly rare.