Supervia, Conchita
Supervia, Conchita
Supervia, Conchita, famous Spanish mezzo-soprano; b. Barcelona, Dec. 9, 1895; d. London, March 30, 1936. She studied at the Colegio de las Damas Negras in Barcelona. She made her operatic debut with a visiting opera company at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires on Oct. 1, 1910, in Stiattesi’s opera Blanca de Beaulieu. She then sang in the Italian premiere of Der Rosenkavalier in Rome in 1911, as Carmen in Bologna in 1912, and as a member of the Chicago Opera (1915-16). She appeared frequently at La Scala in Milan from 1924; also sang in other Italian music centers, and at London’s Covent Garden (1934-35). She endeared herself to the Italian public by reviving Rossini’s operas L’Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola; she also attracted favorable critical attention by performing the part of Rosina in II Barbiere di Siviglia in its original version as a coloratura contralto. In 1931 she married the British industrialist Sir Ben Rubenstein. She died as a result of complications following the birth of a child.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire