Description

VINA BOVY (MALVINA BOVI VAN OVERBERGHE) (GHENT, 22 MAY, 1900 – GHENT, 16 MAY, 1983)

Actually, Johanna Pauline Felicité Bovi van Overberghe. She came from a very poor background and was raised as an orphan by her grandparents. Later she worked in a cigar factory, but had her voice trained in Ghent. In 1918, she made her debut with a travelling opera company in Ghent in Les deux billets by Poise. Then in 1919, she came to the Ghent Opera, where she made her professional debut as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel.

From 1922 to 1925, she sang at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. In 1925, she took on the inaugural role of Manon by Massenet at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. She appeared at this house (with interruptions) until about 1939, including as Mimi in La Bohème, as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, as Leila in Pêcheurs de perles by Bizet, and as Alexina in Le Roi malgré lui by E. Chabrier.

She appeared at the Grand Opéra in Paris in the years 1935–1939 and again in 1947 (as Gilda in Rigoletto). In 1927 and again in 1936, she appeared at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Further guest performances took place in Barcelona and Madrid (1928), at the Teatro Fenice in Venice (1924), in Brescia (1924) and Cremona (1924), in Milan, Rome, and Rio de Janeiro (1927).

In 1928, she made guest appearances at the Monte Carlo Opera as Mireille by Gounod, as Mimi, as Nedda in Bajazzo, and as Marschallin in Rosenkavalier. From 1932 to 1934, she performed as Violetta in La Traviata, as Marguerite in Faust by Gounod, and as Manon in the well-known opera by Massenet, and again in 1947 as Thaïs by Massenet.

In 1928, she married Norberto Fischer, the heir of the French Empress Eugénie, and then interrupted her career for several years. During this time, she lived at her castle, Cyrnos, in Cap Martin. In 1933, however, she decided to return to the stage.

In 1936, she accepted a call to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she remained until 1939 (inaugural role: Violetta). Here, she continued to sing the title characters in Massenet’s Manon and Delibes’ Lakmé, Marguerite in Faust, and Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, as well as the four soprano roles in The Tales of Hoffmann.

She also made a guest appearance at the San Francisco Opera in 1937. In 1938, she sang the soprano solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under A. Toscanini at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

After the Second World War, she appeared as a guest on Belgian and French stages. In 1964, she gave her last concert in the Kursaal in Ostend.

The artist, who was generally regarded as one of the most important coloraturas of her generation in the French-speaking world, was director of the Ghent Opera from 1947 to 1955. Excellently trained, virtuoso coloratura voice, equally at home in the French and Italian repertoire.

Lit.: J. Deleersnyder: Vina Bovy (Ghent, 1965).

TRACKLIST

1. 1. Andrea Chénier (Giordano) Vicino a te s’acqueta… La nostra morte (w. Verbeeck), Live recording
   2. Don Pasquale (Donizetti) Nocturne (w. Mariano) HMV 2LA 4298 1944-06-08
   3. Frauenliebe und leben (Schumann) Tasso Janopoulo (piano) HMV Unpubl., Paris 1942-6-6
   4. Il bacio – Valse chantée (Arditi) HMV W1545 2LA 3796 1942-07-14
   5. Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) Splendor le sacre faci intorno!… Spargi d’amaro pianto il mio HMV 2LA 912-1, 2LA 954-1, DB4998, 1936-03-02
   6. Rêves de printemps (Strauss) HMV W1545 2LA3797
   7. Rigoletto (Verdi) Caro nome HMV DB4997 2LA 822 1936-01-10
   8. Rigoletto (Verdi) Vois a tes pieds (w. Thill) Columbia LFX472 CLX1901
   9. Traviata (Verdi) Brindisi (w. Thill) Columbia LF94 CL5709
   10. Traviata (Verdi) Folie folie Grand air de Violetta 2e partie Gramophone DB5004 2 LA 911
   11. Traviata (Verdi) Mon faible coeur! (Grand air de Violetta, 1e partie) Gramophone DB5004 2 LA 823
   12. Traviata (Verdi) Un jour, pour charmer ma vie (w. Thill) Columbia LFX472 CLX1902