BIDU SAYÃO
Occasionally
a singer steals your heart and never returns it. For opera-lovers
of a certain age, Bidù Sayao was just such an accommodating
thief. Though the act may be considered criminal, her 
weapons (both personal
and artistic) in the assault on our affections were entirely
legitimate.
Born Balduina de Oliveira Sayao, in Rio de Janeiro, she early determined on a stage career despite family opposition. Three mentors of exceptional integrity guided her artistic development: Elena Teodorini, former La Scala prima donna, ripened her infantile voice and ingrained a solid technique; Jean de Reszke, epitome of elegance in the Met's early decades, developed her stylistic authenticity; and Giuseppe Danise, Met baritone and Sayao's second husband, astutely expanded her coloratura-oriented repertory to include lyric roles. Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia served for her stage debut, at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome in 1926, followed by Gilda (Rigoletto) and Carolina (Il Matrimonio Segreto). During the next decade, she appeared throughout Italy, and in Paris, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Rio. Her roles included Lucia di Lammermoor, Amina (Sonnambula), Elvira (I Puritani) and Zerbinetta (Ariadne). A 1936 appearance under Arturo Toscanini in La Damoiselle Élue precipitated her Met debut as Massenet's Manon, on February 13, 1937. Thereafter her career was largely confined to the Met and San Francisco Opera and American concert tours.
I recall hearing
Sayao in recital in 1947. She was elegantly attired, enchanting
in manner, stylistically acute (playful in Brazilian folk songs)
and scrupulous in vocalism. In opera, critics called her stage
persona bewitching. During her sixteen Met seasons she appeared
226 times in twelve roles, most often as a delightfully spunky
Susanna and piquant Mimì (each forty-six times), Violetta
(23), Manon (22), Zerlina (21), Rosina (19) and Adina (18). Appearances
as Mélisande, Norina, Gilda, Juliette and Serp
ina (La Serva Padrona)
numbered in the single digits.
Of her commercial recordings, the Manon excerpts and an assortment of Mozart arias (plus her intoxicating Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5) reveal her distinctive gifts. Notable is her exquisite spinning of the Mozart line in tones of porcelain delicacy while never failing to suggest specific character traits. (Cherubino's and Zerlina's aria pairs are remarkable in that regard.) Not surprisingly, her partnership with Ezio Pinza in Edward Johnson's 1940 Le Nozze di Figaro sparked the Mozart revival in America. Mozart was included in De Reszke's regimen, and the sense of style, musical rectitude and vocal perfection that reflect his training permeate her Mozart and other records.
When we turn to her Met performances (about two dozen preserved from her thirty-four broadcasts), another side of the singer's artistic profile is revealed -- and quite startling it is! In live stage performances, Sayao often prefers truthful dramatic and musical communication to mere vocal beguilement. Self, rather than tutelage, comes to the fore. She was no namby-pamby soubrette. Yes, wheedling and coy as need be, but always she sought out the humanity in these willful minxes. Her Adina, Norina and Rosina are marvels of comic portraiture, yet adorable creatures whose technical aplomb in roulades and grace in cantilena are mesmerizing. Unrivaled in the "ina/ana" repertory, she shone also in lyric parts, even while contending with Jarmila Novotná, Licia Albanese, Eleanor Steber and Dorothy Kirsten. Sayao's commercial discs of Manon's arias are exemplars of characterization, technical virtuosity and tonal purity, but in three preserved broadcasts she gives full rein to her passionate nature, yet maintains vocal poise. As Juliette (1947), she is the embodiment of Roméo's "belle enfant," floating the waltz song with utmost ease and mingling coquetry and passion in the duets.
When playing Juliette, Violetta, Mimì and Gilda, Sayao's commitment to verisimilitude occasionally imperiled her modest vocal resources or caused aberrant sounds -- in these moments she deemed character and situation of greater importance than vocal niceties. As Mimì, sometimes she seems more Mürger's girl than Puccini's gentle love, but her musical subtlety and theatrical craft in the "Addio" and final act redress the balance. In her 1937 Traviata, she triumphs in "Sempre libera," turning it into fervid delirium; the introductory "gioir"s emerge as defiant flourishes, the entire scene more abandoned than her lovely but rather chaste commercial recording.
And she wanted even more than these roles could offer her: "My life was total renunciation," she cried during a 1981 broadcast-intermission interview, as she hankered after Butterfly, Desdemona, Manon Lescaut. She did add Margherita and Nedda in 1952 for San Francisco, though by then the end was near. But whatever the mode, coloratura or lyric, comic or tragic, the soprano filled her roles to the brim with her silvery tone and vivid portraiture.
The Johnson régime was Sayao's playground. During Bing's reign, she sang only four performances of Mimì (including her farewell to the house, on February 26, 1952) and a final Manon with the company in Boston, on April 23 of that year. Her 1951 Bohème broadcast confirms that, unlike many who claim perspicacity, Sayao did leave at the top of her form. By 1958 her retirement was complete; thereafter she spent much of her time at her home in Maine. Fortunately, opera-lovers have long memories, and recent CD reissues of her recordings ensure that many new hearts will be purloined.
PAUL JACKSON is the author of Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met (Amadeus 1992) and Sign-off for the Old Met (Amadeus 1997).
photos: New York Times Studio photo/Opera News Archives (Padrona); Opera News cover photo © Stan Fellerman 1977;
OPERA NEWS, June 1999 Copyright © 1999 The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Inc.