Born: 11 May 1902, Brazil
Died: 12 March 1999
Country most active: Brazil, United States
Also known as: Balduina de Oliveira Sayão
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Brazilian soprano Bidu Sayão studied with famed Polish tenor Jean de Reszke before making her debut in Rio de Janeiro in 1925 in The Barber of Seville. After many European successes, Sayão came to Washington, D.C., in 1936 where she made her American debut in Lakmé. It was a disastrous performance in which the unpaid orchestra refused to play, and the opera was performed solely to piano accompaniment. The Metropolitan Opera engaged Sayão in 1937, where she remained until 1951. Her delicate voice was perhaps too small for the cavernous “Old Met,” but her successes, especially in French opera, endeared her to audiences.