Maria Cebotari
Soprano from Chișinău who became a star in Dresden, Berlin, Salzburg and Vienna
1910-1949
Photo: Z thomas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Maria Cebotari was a soprano from Chișinău who in the 1930s and 1940s ranked among the great opera stars of Germany and Austria. She sang in the premiere of an opera by Richard Strauss, performed in Salzburg and at the Vienna State Opera, and acted in films. She died in 1949, aged just 39.
Link with MoldovaMaria Cebotari was born in Chișinău in 1910, studied singing at the city's conservatory and left for the West in 1929, where she became one of the best-known sopranos of her generation.
Cebotari was born Maria Ciubotaru in Chișinău on 10 February 1910. She studied singing at the conservatory of her home town. In 1929 she joined a touring company of the Moscow Art Theatre as an actress and married its leader, Alexander Virubov. With the company she ended up in Berlin, where she took singing lessons from Oskar Daniel for three months.
On 15 March 1931 she made her debut as Mimì in La bohème at the Semperoper in Dresden. That same year Bruno Walter brought her to the Salzburg Festival, where she sang Euridice. In 1935 in Dresden she created the role of Aminta in the premiere of Richard Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau. After that she was one of the prima donnas of the Berlin State Opera and appeared in musical films, including Odessa in Flammen, about refugees from Bessarabia. She was never a member of the Nazi party, but the regime did use her fame for propaganda. After the war she sang at the Vienna State Opera.
She died of cancer in Vienna on 9 June 1949 and is buried in the Döblinger Friedhof, next to her second husband, the actor Gustav Diessl. Her two sons were adopted by the British pianist Clifford Curzon.
Where you will find her
Chișinău has a street named after her. Her younger son donated her death mask, photographs and personal belongings to the National Museum of History, where the mask is part of the permanent exhibition.
Key facts
- Born in Chișinău on 10 February 1910
- Opera debut in Dresden on 15 March 1931
- Premiere of Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau in 1935
- Died in Vienna on 9 June 1949
