Sayao, Bidu (1902–1999)

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Sayao, Bidu (1902–1999)

Brazilian soprano. Name variations: Bidú Sayão. Pronunciation: Bidoo Sah-YA-oo. Born Balduina de Oliveira Sayao on May 11, 1902, in Niteroi near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; died from complications of pneumonia after a brief illness on March 12, 1999, in Rockport, Maine; daughter of Pedro de Oliveira (a well-to-do banana planter) and Maria José Costa Sayao; studied with Elena Theodorini, Jean de Reszke, Lucien Muratore, Reynaldo Hahn, and Luigi Ricci; married Walter Mocchi (an impresario), in 1927 (divorced 1934); married Giuseppe Danise (a baritone), in 1947 (died 1963).

Debuted in Rome (1926), at Opéra-Comique in Paris (1926), at Teatro alla Scala (1930), at Metropolitan Opera (1937), at Chicago Opera (1941), at San Francisco Opera (1946); retired (1957).

"It is said that Miss Sayao's success in opera has done more to open the door to careers for other ambitious Brazilian girls of good family than all the women's-rights organizations of her country," noted Current Biography in 1942. Were it not for one uncle who had a passion for theater, Bidu Sayao would not have been given a chance to perfect her voice. She began studying with the great Rumanian opera singer Elena Theodorini at the age of 14, without her family's knowledge. Her voice had a limited range but Theodorini began to build it with spectacular results. A later teacher, Emma Carelli , said: "The voice is limited but sometimes it is the tiny birds who fly the greatest distances and for the longest times!" When her parents were finally told, "they

were only a little less shocked," commented Sayao, "than if they had awakened one morning to discover that I had eloped with a Fiji Islander." It was Theodorini who convinced them that a voice "was something worth cultivating."

In 1925, Sayao made her debut as a concert singer in the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, a still-remembered triumph. In 1927, she married her teacher's former husband, Walter Mocchi, who directed the Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo. At this time, she made Rome her base and began to make extended concert tours and to perform opera in Europe and South America. Sayao met Toscanini in 1936 and was given the part as soloist for Debussy's La damoiselle élue at Carnegie Hall, which won great critical acclaim. Lucrezia Bori had left the Metropolitan, and Sayao was asked to replace her. She remained at the Met for 16 seasons during which she sang 12 roles. Of the 226 performances she made in New York, 38 were broadcast, so recordings of all her Metropolitan roles except Serpina exist. Sayao had a true lyric coloratura with a peculiar sweetness. Although her voice was small, it could always be heard in solo or ensemble from the back of a large hall. When Rudolf Bing became director of the Met in 1950, Sayao's performances were drastically reduced, so she began to concentrate instead on concerts throughout the United States and Canada. In 1958, Sayao retired to the seaside town of Lincolnville, Maine.