Person
Segrera, Carolina (1905-1998)Other forms
Santiago de Cuba (Cuba) 1905-07-05 - New York 1998-02-08
Cuban soprano and teacher.
She was born on July 5, 1905, in Santiago de Cuba (Cuba). She was the daughter of Carlos Segrera, an engineer and architect, and Caridad Pujol. She was the wife of Everett Marshall, a baritone, and had a daughter, Belén.
She began her musical training in her native country and received a scholarship to further her studies in Italy. Throughout her professional career, she performed concerts in places such as Geneva, London, Paris, Rome, and the United States, receiving favorable reviews from the international press. Cuban newspapers reported one of her early performances at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, in the opera "I gioielli della Madonna" by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.
On February 25, 1930, she performed the piece "Ruiseñor cubano" at the Teatro Encanto in Havana. Two years later, on July 10, 1932, she wrote to Manuel de Falla expressing her desire to meet him personally during the Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea di Venezia, in which she participated. On January 31, 1934, she sang in the performance of "El sombrero de tres picos" (1917-1919) by Falla at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, alongside dancers Attilia Radice, Alexander von Swaine, and Carletto Thieben. This performance also featured "La vida breve" (1904-1913) by Falla. On March 18, 23, and 29, 1937, at the same Italian theater, she received great success in her role as La Samaritana in the opera "Francesca da Rimini" by Ricardo Zandonai.
In 1938, film director Nick Grinde cast her in the musical film "Mis dos amores" (1938), where she worked alongside artists such as Tito Guízar, Blanca de Castejón, and Juan Torena. She also appeared in the musical short film "The Cuban Nightingale" (1929), directed by Murray Rot, with musicians such as accordionist Celestino Biachi, violinist Epaim Suárez, and guitarist Genaro Veiga.
She spent the final years of her life in New York, where she taught singing lessons. On September 1, 1990, she was a member of the jury for the Concurso Internacional Julián Gayarre in Pamplona, which was presided over by Fernando Pérez Ollo, alongside Inge Borkh, Svetozar Donev, Suso Mariategui, Antonio Blancas, and Marie Clarie Arbaretaz; the first prize was awarded to Spanish baritone Manuel Lanza Moreno. She passed away on February 8, 1998, in New York (United States).