Célestine Galli-Marié
French mezzo-soprano (1837–1905)
Célestine Galli-Marié (French pronunciation: [selɛstin ɡali maʁje]; November 1840 – 22 September 1905) was a French mezzo-soprano, who is most famous for creating the title role in Georges Bizet's Carmen.
Early life
She was born Marie-Célestine Laurence Marié de l'Isle in November 1840 in Paris. She was taught singing by her father, Mécène Marié de l'Isle, who also had a successful opera career. Her début came in 1859 in Strasbourg, and she sang in Italian in Lisbon. At the age of fifteen, she had married a sculptor named Galli (who died in 1861) and thus took her stage name, Galli-Marié.
Career
Émile Perrin, the director of the Opéra-Comique, heard her performing Balfe's The Bohemian Girl at Rouen and brought her to Paris. She sang at the Opéra-Comique until 1885, premiering in Pergolesi's La serva padrona. Her most famous roles were in Thomas's Mignon (1866) and Bizet's Carmen (1875). It was said that at the 33rd performance of Carmen on 2 June 1875, Galli-Marié had a premonition of Bizet's death while singing the cards scene in Act III, and fainted when she left the stage; the composer, in fact, died that night, and the next performance was cancelled due to her indisposition. Undertaking much touring, she performed Carmen in Brussels (16 January 1876), Naples (the Italian premiere), Genoa, Barcelona, Lyon, Liege and Dieppe before returning in the Opéra-Comique revival of the original production on 22 October 1883.
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