The celebrated lyric soprano, renowned for her Violetta, Mimì and Gilda, has died at the age of 87.
Romanian soprano Ileana Cotrubaș, one of the leading lyric sopranos of the second half of the 20th century, has died at the age of 87, according to reports on Thursday, 20 August.
Born in Galați, Romania, on 9 June 1939, Cotrubaș began singing as a child and studied in Bucharest before making her stage debut at the Bucharest Opera in 1964 as Yniold in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. A year later, she won the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch, followed in 1966 by first prize in the voice category at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich.
Her international career developed rapidly. She joined Oper Frankfurt in 1968 and made her Glyndebourne debut the following year as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande. At Glyndebourne she also appeared in the title role of Cavalli’s La Calisto. She went on to sing at many of the world’s major opera houses, including the Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House, La Scala and Metropolitan Opera.
Cotrubaș made her Royal Opera House debut in 1971 as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Among the roles with which she became particularly associated were Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, Gilda in Rigoletto, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Mélisande.
One of the most celebrated episodes of her career came in 1975, when she was called to La Scala at short notice to replace Mirella Freni as Mimì in La bohème. The performance helped consolidate her international reputation.
Her Metropolitan Opera debut came on 23 March 1977, again as Mimì. She subsequently appeared there as Gilda, Violetta, Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Tatyana and Micaëla. Several of those performances were preserved for television, including Rigoletto with Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil and La traviata with Domingo.
Cotrubaș also left an extensive recorded legacy. Among her best-known recordings is Verdi’s La traviata with Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes under Carlos Kleiber, as well as Rigoletto with Domingo and Piero Cappuccilli under Carlo Maria Giulini.
She retired from regular public performance in 1990 and subsequently devoted considerable time to teaching and working with younger singers.
Admired for the combination of a distinctive lyric voice and intense dramatic involvement, Cotrubaș was particularly celebrated as a singing actress, bringing vulnerability and psychological detail to characters such as Violetta, Mimì and Mélisande.
Her death marks the passing of one of the defining lyric sopranos of her generation.
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