Pally Zenaida

About

Zenaida Pally was born on June 10, 1919, in Soroca, Bessarabia, and was one of the most remarkable mezzo-sopranos on the Romanian opera stage. Between 1940 and 1945, she simultaneously attended three faculties – the Faculty of Commerce, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Conservatory of Music – where she studied singing with Elena Saghin and opera under the direction of Mihail Vulpescu. After graduating, she worked as an employee at the State Bank and was a member of the Radio Choir before dedicating herself entirely to her artistic career. She debuted as a soloist at the Bucharest National Opera in May 1945, at the age of 26, performing the role of Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, an event that marked the beginning of a prestigious international career. Throughout her decades at the Bucharest National Opera, Zenaida Pally created an impressive gallery of characters, including Eboli in Don Carlo, Azucena in Il Trovatore, and Ulrica in Un Ballo in maschera, all by Verdi, Carmen in Georges Bizet's opera, and Charlotte in Jules Massenet's Werther. Her most remarkable performance was the role of the Sphinx in Enescu's masterpiece Oedipus, which she sang at the opera's Romanian premiere in 1958. Alongside her rich opera repertoire, the artist also had an important vocal-symphonic repertoire, performing Stabat Mater, the Ninth Symphony, and various lieder. She toured abroad and made recordings for Romanian Radio Broadcasting, as well as for record labels in Bucharest, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Prague, her voice being preserved thanks to these reference recordings. His exceptional contribution to the art of lyric singing was recognized through numerous distinctions: the Order of Labour, 1st and 2nd class, the title of Merited Artist of the Romanian People's Republic, the State Prize, 1st class, and the title of People's Artist, awarded in 1962. In 1974, Zenaida Pally emigrated to Germany, where she continued her musical activity in Saarbrücken until 1988. She passed away on June 26, 1997, at the age of 78. The Bucharest National Opera dedicated a commemorative exhibition to her in 2009, and the fifth edition of the International Singing Competition "Masters of Lyric Art" in 2013 proudly bore the name of this great artist.