Meet Beatriz Díaz, Soprano. An Asturias story.

Since Beatriz Díaz was once invited by Maestro Riccardo Muti to sing Paisiello’s Missa Defunctorum at Salzburg Festival and Florence Musical May (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), and afterwards played Diana in Iphigénie en Aulide at Roma´s Opera, her career as a lyric soprano has been developed intense and progressively all over the World.
00:00:00 Beatriz Díaz Intro
00:00:32 Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion | Missa Defuncturum
00:03:42 Beatriz introduction by Alicia Suárez Hulton
00:06:52 Beatriz Díaz and Chus Pedro Suárez
00:33:35 Rex tremendae majestatis | Missa Defunctorum
Born in Aller council in Asturias, northern Spain, she studied with Elena Pérez Herrero and afterwards had the chance to join several Master Class with Mirella Freni, Montserrat Caballé, Elena Obraztsova and Mady Mesplé. She was the absolute winner of the XLIV International Contest “Francisco Viñas” and five more special awards in that unforgettable edition, as well as the Grand Prize at the “First Berliner International Music Competition”. She was also awarded in the International Competition “Ciudad de Logroño”, “Julián Gayarre” and “Fundación Guerrero”.
Her more celebrated operistic performaces are La Bohème, Turandot, Gianni Schicchi, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Falstaff or Un ballo in maschera; and her zarzuela’s interpretations include well-known tittles like La generala, Los gavilanes, La eternal canción or Black, el payaso, together with Baroque style plays: Viento(es la dicha de amor), Clementina and El imposible mayor en amor, le vence Amor.
Her performaces have achieved successes in large National Theatres such as Zarzuela and Real in Madrid, Euskalduna in Bilbao, Maestranza in Seville, Carlos V Palace in Granada, Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas and in notables International Theatres as La Fenice in Venice, Carlo Felice in Genoa, Massimo in Palermo, Comunale in Bologna and in Modena, Châtelet in Paris and Colón in Buenos Aires. Likewise she participated in exclusive concerts in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Qatar, Rabat or Tokyo, among others. She has been directed by important conductors: Daniel Oren, P. Arrivabeni, A. Allemandi, Pedro Halffter, Matteo Beltrami, F. Haider, M. Mariotti, A. Zedda, Óliver Díaz, Manuel H. Silva, A. Guingal and she has worked with outstanding stage director like Nuria Espert, Emilio Sagi, Ignacio García, Y. Kokkos, J. Copley, J. Miller, G. Tambascio, M. Pontiggia, Damiano Micheletto and Francesco Micheli. Since 2013, she has frequently worked with La Fura dels Baus as a soprano in Carmina Burana , obtaining an overwhelming triumph in Spain, Macedonia and Taiwan.
Missa defunctorum | Op. 97 | 1789:
This is Requiem for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra by Giovanni Paisiello (1740 - 1816). The occasion for this Requiem was a smallpox epidemic which struck Madrid in 1788 and caused the death of Ferdinando IV's family and the elderly king Carlo III of Spain. In 1789 smallpox reached Naples and in January of that year, prince Gennaro of Naples and Sicily died too. He was only 8 years. Paisiello composed this requiem same year, in memory of young prince. It was revised ten years later as a requiem for Pope Pius VI. This requiem mass is quite different from those of Mozart, Verdi and others. It is a two-hour, one act opera where sorrow is mixed with hope.
Giovanni Paisiello (1740 - 1816):
An Italian composer and one of the most important and influential Italian composers. Paisiello is known to have composed 94 operas. His music was praised by Haydn and Beethoven and had an operatic influence on Mozart and Rossini. When he was barely thirteen, he left Taranto to go to study music at the conservatory of Sant'Onofrio in Naples, where he studied under the supervision of his teacher Francesco Durante and later becoming his assistant.
In January 1777, he arrived in the capital of the Russian Empire and became music teacher of the Grand Duchess Maria Fjòdorovna and after six months he already staged his works. After the performance of "La serva padrona" (already set to music some decades earlier by Pergolesi), the following year it was the turn of one of his masterpieces, "The Barber of Seville", listened to by Mozart.
Paisiello left the Russia in 1783, and he placed himself at the service of Ferdinand IV in Naples, where he composed one of his best works including "Missa defunctorum" (this video). Paisiello is known for composing "Viva Ferdinando il re", adopted in 1816 as the national anthem of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Giovanni Paisiello died of intestinal blockage on June 5, 1816 in his home in Naples assisted by his sisters Maria Saveria and Ippolita. The house where he died is still in place and it is in Via Concezione a Monte Calvario, 48 (where a plaque has been placed), which he had rented since 1811.
Performed by:
Riccardo Muti, Conductor
Beatriz Diaz, Soprano
Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
Choir La Stagione Armonica
Sergio Balestracci, Chorus Master