Marie Recio
Marie Recio, née Marie-Geneviève Martin (10 June 1814 – 13 June 1862) was a French 19th-century opera singer (mezzo-soprano), the second wife of Hector Berlioz.
Biography
Marie Recio was born in Châtenay-Malabry to a French military father, Colonel Joseph Martin (1758-1836), battalion commander and a Spanish mother. Peter Bloom believes that it is likely that she took singing lessons from the great Italian singer David Banderali (an academic at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1828 to 1849), being the friend of his daughter, Anne Barthe.[1] In the 1830s, she became a professional singer in Paris.[2]
Berlioz and Marie met around 1840.
Thanks to Berlioz's influence, she made her debut at the Opéra-Comique on 9 October 1841, but it was a fiasco and she only held the position for a few months. Her repertoire was limited: Inès in Donizetti's
Marie and Berlioz travelled to Brussels in September 1842 and she accompanied him on his various journeys to Prague in 1846 etc.
The couple lived together from 1844 and for almost twenty years. He married her on 19 October 1854, at the Sainte Trinité church in Paris. During all these years, she became collaborator and manager of the musician.[5]
She died of a heart disease at a friend's home in Saint-Germain-en-Laye at age 48. Her mother, Marie Sotera Villas Recio, stayed with the composer until his last days.[5]
She appeared under the features of actress Renée Saint-Cyr, in La Symphonie fantastique (1942), a feature film by Christian-Jaque.
Bibliography
- ISBN 2-213-61528-4. Nectoux2003.
- ISBN 2-213-61528-4. Bloom2003.
- OCLC 419830672, p. 688 Read online
- Pascal Beyls, Marie Recio, 1814-1862 — seconde épouse de Berlioz. 2015, 209 pages BnF 443243869
References
- ^ a b Bloom, Citron & Reynaud 2003, p. 449.
- ^ a b Bloom, Citron & Reynaud 2003, p. 450.
- ^ a b Nectoux, Citron & Reynaud 2003, p. 385.
- ^ Les passions amoureuses on bnf.fr.
- ^ a b Bloom, Citron & Reynaud 2003, p. 452.
External links
- Marie Recio at Find a Grave
- Autograph letter from Marie Recio (1843) available at Gallica
- Lettre of Berlioz mentioning Marie Recio (1854) available at Gallica
- Chronologie: Marie Recio Biographie on Kronobase.org