French opera singer Renée Doria died on 6 March shortly after her 100th birthday. She was one of the leading lyric coloratura sopranos of her era in France.
Born Renée Dumazert in Perpignan, France, her official operatic debut took place in 1942 in Marseille, as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
She made her Paris debut at the Gaîté-Lyrique in 1943, as Lakmé, and the following year, she sang at the Opéra-Comique, in the same role. Her debut at the Paris Opera in 1947, as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, was highly successful and she remained a permanent member of this house. In thirty years of career, Doria sang an estimated sixty roles.
Renée Doria made several recordings for EMI and Philips, most notably, complete studio recordings of Contes d’Hoffmann (1948), Thais (1961), Mireille (1962), Massenet’s Sapho (1978), and excerpts of Rigoletto, Faust, and Manon, opposite Alain Vanzo, as well as recitals of arias and songs.
