Marina de Gabaráin

Marina de Gabaráin (191713 June 1972) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. Her international career began at Glyndebourne in 1952, where she appeared in Rossini's La Cenerentola as Angelina (Cinderella), which became her signature role.

Life Born in San Sebastián (Donostia) in 1917, Gabaráin initially trained in Italy with Giuseppe Pais, who also taught Renata Tebaldi. Continuing her studies with and Pierre Bernac in Paris,

She achieved international recognition when she appeared in the title role of Angelina in Rossini's La Cenerentola at the 1952 Glyndebourne Festival, conducted by Vittorio Gui. She repeated her success the following year, when the production was recorded for LP by EMI,

At the Liceu in Barcelona, she first appeared in 1954 as Angelina, repeating her signature role the following year in Monte Carlo. In 1956 she first appeared at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in the world premiere of Juan José Castro's opera Bodas de Sangre. The theatre became her main base of operations in the following years, where she added Marfa in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, Isabella in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana to her repertoire. In 1968 she showed the first signs of the serious illness which was to cause her definitive retirement, and her death in 1972 while undergoing treatment in Paris. Nevertheless, her small legacy of commercial recordings (supplemented by many off-air performances) assures her a significant place amongst the finest 20th-century operatic mezzo-sopranos.