Maurizio Bensaude
Encyclopedia
Maurício Bensaúde (also known professionally as Maurizio Bensaude) (13 February 1863, Ponta Delgada
— 22 December 1912, Lisbon
), was a Portuguese
operatic baritone
. He arrived in Lisbon in 1884, where he received vocal training
for a short time, and then made his debut in the same year at the Teatro da Trinidad in Lisbon, in the operetta
La petite mariée by Charles Lecocq. He then worked in another operetta at the Portuguese
capital, in the Teatro de D. Maria, where he appeared in operettas and musical comedies. However, he continued to take singing lessons, and began to take on operatic roles as well at the end of the 1880s. He quickly became a success, and went on to have extensive international guest appearance
s.
In 1896, he sang at the Teatro Costanzi
in Rome
, playing Riccardo in Bellini
's I Puritani in 1897, and playing Gunther in Twilight of the Gods. In the 1893-94 and 1898-99 seasons, he was engaged at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York
, where he served as Amonasro in the debut of Aida. In 1899, he performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin
, and in 1900, he performed at the Covent Garden Opera
in London as Amonasro and as Figaro in Barber of Seville. He also had other guest appearances at the Berlin Court Opera
, the Teatro Argentina
in Rome, Paris
and Milan
, at the Odessa Opera, and in Zagreb
. He also toured through Brazil
and the United States
.
In 1910, he gave up his stage career. At times he worked as the head of an opera troupe, with whom he held opera performances in Portugal
. He worked as a teacher and was active in the management of the Teatro San Carlos
in Lisbon, but he died two years after his farewell stage.
Bensaude was married to the opera singer Julia de Fano. His repertoire for the stage included Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor
, Germont in La Traviata
, Lescaut in Manon
by Massenet
, the Escamillo in Carmen, Marcello in Puccini's
La Boheme
, and Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana
.
. He made his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera
on November 23, 1894, as Amonasro in Verdi's
Aida
, and his debut in Philadelphia on the following December 18 in the same role. he would remain a member of the Metropolitan company for the remainder of the season. At least at first he made little impression in New York, where critics described his voice as "pleasant" or "tolerable,"; The New York Times, in a generally mixed review of the production, indicated the artist "lacks distinction, both vocally and dramatically." Perhaps Bensaude was overshadowed by other developments; the Aida soprano Libia Drog was attempting to erase memories of her own unsuccessful New York debut two days earlier in Rossini's William Tell
, when she was so stricken by stage fright
that she froze onstage and was unable to perform, and the Rhadames, Francesco Tamagno
, drew critical reproval for "bawling" his part over the footlights.
Ponta Delgada
Ponta Delgada is a city and municipality on the island of São Miguel in the archipelago of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. It includes 44,403 residents in the urban area, and approximately 20,113 inhabitants in the three central parishes that comprise the historical city: São Pedro,...
— 22 December 1912, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
), was a Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
operatic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
. He arrived in Lisbon in 1884, where he received vocal training
Vocal pedagogy
Vocal pedagogy is the study of the art and science of voice instruction. It is used in the teaching of singing and assists in defining what singing is, how singing works, and how proper singing technique is accomplished....
for a short time, and then made his debut in the same year at the Teatro da Trinidad in Lisbon, in the operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
La petite mariée by Charles Lecocq. He then worked in another operetta at the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
capital, in the Teatro de D. Maria, where he appeared in operettas and musical comedies. However, he continued to take singing lessons, and began to take on operatic roles as well at the end of the 1880s. He quickly became a success, and went on to have extensive international guest appearance
Guest appearance
In show business , a guest appearance is a participation of an outsider performer , usually called guest artist , in an event , i.e., the participation of a performer which does not belong to the regular crew In performance...
s.
In 1896, he sang at the 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...
, playing Riccardo in Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's I Puritani in 1897, and playing Gunther in Twilight of the Gods. In the 1893-94 and 1898-99 seasons, he was engaged at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he served as Amonasro in the debut of Aida. In 1899, he performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, and in 1900, he performed at the Covent Garden Opera
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
in London as Amonasro and as Figaro in Barber of Seville. He also had other guest appearances at the Berlin Court Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
, the Teatro Argentina
Teatro Argentina
The Teatro Argentina is an opera house and theatre located in the Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in Rome, Italy. It is one of the oldest theatres in Rome, and was inaugurated on January 31, 1732 with Berenice by Domenico Sarro....
in Rome, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and 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 ,...
, at the Odessa Opera, and in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
. He also toured through Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In 1910, he gave up his stage career. At times he worked as the head of an opera troupe, with whom he held opera performances in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. He worked as a teacher and was active in the management of the Teatro San Carlos
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos is an opera house in Lisbon, Portugal. It was opened on July 30, 1793 by Queen Maria I as a replacement for the Tejo Opera House, which was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake...
in Lisbon, but he died two years after his farewell stage.
Bensaude was married to the opera singer Julia de Fano. His repertoire for the stage included Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, Germont 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...
, Lescaut 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...
by Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
, the Escamillo in Carmen, Marcello in Puccini's
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...
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...
, and Alfio 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...
.
US Career
Although Bensaude was primarily active in Europe, he had more than a passing career in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He made his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
on November 23, 1894, as Amonasro in Verdi's
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
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 his debut in Philadelphia on the following December 18 in the same role. he would remain a member of the Metropolitan company for the remainder of the season. At least at first he made little impression in New York, where critics described his voice as "pleasant" or "tolerable,"; The New York Times, in a generally mixed review of the production, indicated the artist "lacks distinction, both vocally and dramatically." Perhaps Bensaude was overshadowed by other developments; the Aida soprano Libia Drog was attempting to erase memories of her own unsuccessful New York debut two days earlier in Rossini's William Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
, when she was so stricken by stage fright
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially . In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common...
that she froze onstage and was unable to perform, and the Rhadames, Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno was an operatic tenor from Italy who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he cemented his place in musical history by creating the role of Otello in Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece of the same name...
, drew critical reproval for "bawling" his part over the footlights.