Freda Betti

Freda Betti
Born	Frédérique Thérèse Augusta Betti (1924-02-26)26 February 1924 Nice, France
Died	11 November 1979 (1979-11-12) (aged 55) Nice, France
Nationality	French
Education	Conservatory of Nice
Occupation	Mezzo-soprano opera singer, Singing teacher
Years active	1947–1970

Freda Betti (26 February 1924 – 11 November 1979), whose birth name was Frédérique Betti, was a French mezzo-soprano singer.

Biography

Betti was born in 1924 into a modest family : her father was a house painter and her mother a fishmonger. Her older brother was the composer and pianist Henri Betti.

She studied music and especially singing at the Conservatory of Nice, where she obtained a Premier Prix de Chant in 1943. She made her debut at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 1947 as Siébel in Faust by Charles Gounod. She appeared frequently with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France of the RTF in the early 1950s, before entering the troupe of the Opéra-Comique in the 1960s. She sang the title role in particular of Carmen by Georges Bizet.

She later sang in such European opera houses as the Paris Opera, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and La Scala of Milan. She participated in several opera festivals including Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Bayreuth, Nantes, Nice, Nîmes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulon and Vaison-la-Romaine. She also participated in the original production of L'Opéra d'Aran by Gilbert Bécaud, in 1962, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. She worked as a singing teacher at the music school of Monaco in the 1970s.

She married René Clermont (1919–1976) on 29 October 1949 in Levallois-Perret; they had two children.

She died in 1979 at the age of 55. She was buried in the Cimetière du Château in Nice.

She is the great-grand aunt of footballer Alexy Bosetti.

External links

• List of performances, operaclass.com