Elena Dan
Encyclopedia
Biography
The younger sister, and only sibling, of Angela GheorghiuAngela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano opera singer. Since her professional debut in 1990, she has sung as soprano leading roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Milan's La Scala, and many other opera houses in Europe and the United States...
, Elena Dan was born in 1967 in Adjud
Adjud
Adjud is a city in Vrancea County, Moldavia, Romania. It has a population of 17,585 inhabitants . It lies at a railway junction which has a classification yard and a passenger station...
, Romania. She joined Angela at the music boarding school 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....
and also graduated from the Bucharest Music Academy. She made her international debut in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
at Opéra National de Lyon
Opéra National de Lyon
Opéra National de Lyon is an opera company in Lyon, France which performs in the Nouvel Opéra, a modernized version in 1993 of the original 1831 opera house.The inaugural performance of François-Adrien Boïeldieu's La Dame blanche was given on 1 July 1831...
in 1996. The opera was filmed and recorded and is still available on DVD and CD.
Angela and Elena were, as Angela puts it 'inseparable, like twins'. In 1994, Angela Gheorgiu described Elena as follows: 'she is more beautiful than I and sings even better!'. Angela dedicated her 'Mysterium' recording to her sister.
Elena Dan died in 1996 in an accident. Angela Gheorghiu commented, 'she was more than a sister to me... She was only a year younger. We were inseparable almost like twins, although she was blonde and green-eyed. She was another me. But, of course, it's worse for my mother. She is really very badly hit.'
Elena Dan married a doctor, Andrei Dan whilst still attending the Bucharest Music Academy. In 1990 she and Andrei had a daughter called Ioana. After Andrei's death in 2001, Ioana was adopted by Angela Gheorghiu. She now lives in the UK and is a university student.
Recordings
- Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore (Alagna, Gheorghiu, Scaltriti, Alaimo, Dan / Pido, Lyon Opera) CD - complete recording (Decca, 1997)
- Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore (Alagna, Gheorghiu, Scaltriti, Alaimo, Dan / Pido, Lyon Opera) DVD (Decca, 1997)
- Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore (Alagna, Gheorghiu, Scaltriti, Alaimo, Dan / Pido, Lyon Opera) DVD Special Edition with Highlights CD (Decca, 2002)