Marianna Radev, also Marijana Radev, (21 November 1913 – 17 September 1973) was a
Croatian contralto. Radev was considered one of the great alto singers in the period after the
Second World War. Above all in
Italy and in
Berlin, she gained a great reputation "because of her rich, expressive and seemingly never-ending alto voice".
Radev was born on 21 September 1913 to Croatian parents in
Constanța
Constanța (, ; ; rup, Custantsa; bg, Кюстенджа, Kyustendzha, or bg, Констанца, Konstantsa, label=none; el, Κωνστάντζα, Kōnstántza, or el, Κωνστάντια, Kōnstántia, label=none; tr, Köstence), histo ...
,
Romania, to
Bulgarian father and
Croatian mother. She studied piano and vocals at the music academy of
Zagreb. Afterwards she had her voice further trained in
Milan and
Trieste with
Riccardo Stracciari among others. In 1937 she debuted as Marina in Modest Mussorgsky's ''
Boris Godunov
Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...
'' at the ''Teatro Verdi'' in Trieste. Since 1938 she sang at the ''Teatro Reale'' in
Rome, and from 1940 at the opera in
Zagreb. After the Second World War she gave guest performances at the Teatro
la Scala
La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
, in Rome and
Vienna. From 1959 to 1961 she was a member of the
Bavarian State Opera. During guest performances in the great music centres of the world (Vienna,
Munich, Berlin,
Paris,
London,
Buenos Aires,
Moscow) she was celebrated as an esteemed alto.
She participated in recordings of Verdi's ''
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
'', Beethoven's ''
Missa solemnis
{{Audio, De-Missa solemnis.ogg, Missa solemnis is Latin for Solemn Mass, and is a genre of musical settings of the Mass Ordinary, which are festively scored and render the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. In French ...
'' and Rossini's ''
Stabat mater
The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III.Sabatier, Paul ''Life o ...
'' for the
Deutsche Grammophon label. Her recordings under
Ferenc Fricsay (especially the Verdi Requiem and the
Carl Orff ones) and under
Karl Böhm are highly popular among record collectors and music connoisseurs. "Her repertoire was wide and eclectic, and especially her song recordings show the emotional and interpretative maturity of the artist".
[operalounge.de]
In her last years the artist lived in her Croatian homeland, where she still occasionally gave concerts. She died on 30 September 1973 at age 59 during a rehearsal for a baroque concert.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Radev, Marianna
Operatic contraltos
1913 births
1973 deaths
People from Constanța
Croatian people of Bulgarian descent
Yugoslav women singers
Romanian emigrants to Yugoslavia