Malvina Pereira


Malvina Pereira was a Brazilian soprano. She is thought to be the first opera singer from Brazil to have had an international career.

Biography

Malvina Pereira was born in Florianópolis in 1883 and probably studied singing in Italy with maestro Bellucci. She must have made her debut in 1901 at the Teatro Odeon in Mendoza and kept appearing in various small opera houses of Latin America till 1910. Her Italian debut happened in 1911 at the Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia, where she performed Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata. From that point Pereira's career was almost entirely based in Italy, where she was enormously successful in small provincial theatres but almost never appeared on any important stages. Probably the greatest achievement Pereira made in Italy was in 1917, when she sang in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Carcano in Milan. She is also known to have appeared at the Teatro Bellini di Napoli and the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. Apart from Italy, Pereira toured Spain, where in 1914 she sang Rosina in Gioacchino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Violetta and Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, and the United States, where she performed at the Tivoli Theatre in San Francisco as a member of Lambardi Pacific Coast Company. Pereira apparently left the stage in 1920 and subsequently fell into obscurity.

Discography

Pereira must have had a beautifully-timbered coloratura soprano with a perfect technique, as La Prensa wrote about her in 1912: No one can resist the fascination of Mme. Pereira's voice after a few minutes of her singing. What wins the public above all is the sweetness and sympathetic quality of her voice and the perfection of her phrasing. This probably explains the fact that Pereira made quite a few recordings for HMV, Odeon Records and Victor Talking Machine Company, amongst which are several duets from La traviata and Carlos Gomes Il Guarany with the famous tenor Giovanni Zenatello. Moreover, Pereira participated in one of the earliest complete recordings of Gioacchino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia with Ernesto Badini and Edoardo Taliani as partners, made by HMV in 1919 in Milan with the orchestra and chorus of La Scala under the direction of Carlo Sabajno, where she sang the role of Rosina.
TitleRoleCastCompanyReference
Lucia di Lammermoor: Splendon le sacri faciLucia-La voce del padrone053314
Rigoletto: È il sol dell'animaGildaFranco de Gregorio La voce del padrone54481
Rigoletto: Deh! Non parlare al miseroGildaGiuseppe Maggi La voce del padrone54482
Lucia di Lammermoor: Soffriva nel piantoLuciaGiuseppe Maggi La voce del padrone054422
Rigoletto: Bella figlia dell'amoreGildaFranco de Gregorio, Ida Zizolfi, Giuseppe Maggi La voce del padrone054439
Lucia di Lammermoor: Verranno a te sull'auraLuciaSalvatore Salvati La voce del padrone054440
Lucia di Lammermoor: MaledizioneLuciaFranco de Gregorio, Giuseppe Maggi, Vincenzo Bettoni La voce del padrone054442
Il Guarany: Perchè di meste lagrimeCeciliaGiovanni Zenatello Odeon Records40108
La traviata: Parigi, o caraViolettaGiovanni Zenatello Odeon Records40122
Il Guarany: Gentile di cuoreCecilia-Odeon Records40777
Salvator Rosa: Mia piccirella--Odeon Records40778
Il Guarany: Sento una forza indomitaCeciliaGiovanni Zenatello Odeon Records70007
Il barbiere di Siviglia RosinaErnesto Badini, Edoardo Taliani, Abele Carnevali, Umberto di Lelio, Agnese Mometti, Francesco Festa La voce del padroneS 5110, ; S 5112, S 5114, S 5116, S 5118, S 5120, S 5122, S 5124, S 5126, S 5128, S 5130, S 5132, S 5134, S 5136, S 5138, R 5115, R 5125