Delna (real name, Ledan), Marie
Delna (real name, Ledan), Marie
Delna (real name, Ledan), Marie , French contralto; b. Meudon, near Paris, April 3, 1875; d. Paris, July 23, 1932. She was a pupil of Laborde and Savary in Paris, where she made her debut at the Opéra-Comique on June 9, 1892, as Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troy ens; sang there for 6 years with great success; she also appeared at London’s Covent Garden in 1894. She sang at the Paris Opéra (1898–1901) and at Milan’s Teatro Lirico (1898–1901); then again at the Opéra-Comique. In 1903 she married a Belgian, A.H. de Saone, and retired temporarily from the stage; her reappearance at the Opéra-Comique in 1908 was greatly acclaimed and after that she was a prime favorite. On March 5, 1910, she sang Gluck’s Orfeo at her Metropolitan Opéra debut in N.Y. and later Marcelline in Bruneau’s L’Attaque dumoulin at the New Theater, making a deep impression. She then returned to Paris, where she continued to sing at the Opéra-Comique until her retirement in 1922.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire