Conchita Supervía: Opera Arias And Spanish Songs - Arias from Carmen; Mignon; La Cenerentola; La Boheme; Falla: Siete canciones populares espanolas; Granados: Tonadillas (recorded 1927-32) / Seraphim LP 

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"In addition to a mezzo-soprano of splendid color and range, she had a communicative power Which could hardly have been surpassed. No other singer has conveyed a more infectious enjoyment of the sheer act of singing."   -- Ivor Newton

Born in Barcelona on December 9, 1895, CONCHITA SUPERVÍA was only fifteen when she made her début with a visiting Spanish company at the famous Colón House in Buenos Aires, in a minor part. But only a month later she appeared at the same theatre as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana, and her development must have been rapid, for by 1911 we find her singing - rather surprisingly, and in Italian, of course in the Roman premiere of Der rosenkavalier as Octavian. Within another year she was playing such decidedly mature roles as Carmen and Dalila. But it was with Rossini that she really made her international reputation, which began with the revivals at Turin, under Vittorio Gui, of the long-neglected L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola. Soon these productions were being given all over Italy, and not long afterwards reached European capitals with the casts virtually unchanged: La Cenerentola came to Covent Garden in 1934 and was repeated in the following year together with L'Italiana. Among Supervia's other roles were Rosina (11 Barbiere di Siviglia) in the original mezzo- soprano version, Concepción (in Ravel's L'Heure espagnole), Donizetti's Leonora (in La Favorita), Thomas's Mignon, Berlioz's Marguerite and Mozart's Opera Cherubino, while she excelled, of course, in the Spanish repertory - songs and zarzuela roles.

Ivor Newton, who played for her regularly as her recital accompanist, has told in an affectionate tribute of her striking
appearance, strength of character, charm and infectious vitality, and has attempted an explanation of the magic of her vocal accomplishment: "The mellowness of her remarkable mezzo-soprano voice was combined with a coloratura virtuosity so rarely associated with it as to amount almost to a unique phenomenon. She made coloratura seem natural and simple, so that one understood the great attraction this kind of vocal writing had for the early 19th century composers. With coloratura she could express every shade of emotion: the scales, roulades and arpeggios took on at different points a completely different meaning, and she could express with it anything from grief to gaiety."

Supervía died a tragically early death in 1936.

Her son, Mr. George Supervía, has kindly provided the following reminiscense: The earliest musical recollection I have of my mother in our flat in Rome, is covering my ears with my hands and stamping on the parquet flooring at the end of a two-hour...

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