Bori, Lucrezia (real name, Lucrecia Borja y Gonzalez de Riancho)
Bori, Lucrezia (real name, Lucrecia Borja y Gonzalez de Riancho)
Bori, Lucrezia (real name, Lucrecia Borja y Gonzalez de Riancho), distinguished Spanish soprano; b. Valencia, Dec. 24, 1887; d. N.Y., May 14, 1960. She studied at the Valencia Cons, and with Melchior Vidal in Milan. She made her operatic debut in Rome at the Teatro Adriano on Oct. 31, 1908, as Micaela; then sang in Milan, in Naples, and, in 1910, in Paris as Manon Lescaut with the Metropolitan Opera Co.; then made a European tour. In 1911 she sang at La Scala in Milan; made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. as Manon Lescaut on Nov. 11, 1912, and sang there until the end of the 1914-15 season. After a period of retirement occasioned by a vocal affliction, she reappeared in 1919 at Monte Carlo as Mimi, returning to the Metropolitan in 1921 in the same role. Thereafter she appeared in N.Y. with increasing success and popularity until the end of the 1935-36 season, when she retired from opera. Among her finest roles were Juliette, De-spina, Massenet’s Manon, Mélisande, Violetta, Norina, and Mimi.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire