Person
Reyles, Alma (1900-?)Other forms
Montevideo (Uruguay) 1900-02-14 - desconocida
Uruguayan soprano.
Born in Montevideo, Alma Reyles was the daughter of the writer Carlos Reyles Gutiérrez and Antonia Hierro García, and sister of Carlos María and Germán Reyles. She married René Zavaleta Mercado, a philosopher and politician. Her family moved to Paris in 1905. She later married N. N. Beyne and had a daughter, María del Carmen Beyne Reyles.
She studied medicine and forged a singing career on America and Europe. During the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville, she performed a recital for the grand opening of the Peru Pavilion as part of Uruguayan Week. This recital, organized by the Uruguayan delegation, highlighted the works of South American composers such as Carlos López Buchardo, Cluzeau Mortet, José Gil, and Irma Williams. The Asociación Wagneriana de Buenos Aires hired her alongside notable performers like Jane Bathori, Luis Verón, and Tily Wierdeckehr for their 1929-30 season in Argentina. She was also engaged by the Sociedad Orquestal Alemana and the Trio de Buenos Aires.
Reyles's repertoire included "Siete canciones populares españolas" (1914) by Manuel de Falla, to whom she wrote from Paris on October 11, 1931, requesting a signed portrait and performance advice while expressing her gratitude for his recommendation to Maurice Ravel. The following year, in January 1932, she gave a recital after Rafael Alberti spoke at the Institut d'Études Hispaniques of the Université de Paris, singing two of Alberti's poems set to music by Óscar Esplá and Ernesto Halffter.
In Montevideo, Reyles performed frequently at the Teatro Solís and the Estudio Auditorio, where she gave a recital of works by Ravel and Federico Mompou with the pianist Hugo Balzo in 1935. She also worked for Radio Rivadavia in 1938.