Bidú Sayão ( originally Balduina de Oliveira Sayão ) attactive soprano, was
born in Rio de Janiero on May 11, 1902, to Pedro de Oloveira and Maria José Costa Sayão.
Both parents were of Brazilian birth. Her father was a successful babana planter. “ As d little girl
” , she once recalled . “ I was mad about theater. I had an uncler,
a physician, who also had a passion for arts. He was a talented verse-maker and
composer. He used to write monologues for me which I would recite at
performances for charities.“
The death of her father, when she was not yet five, was a traumatic experience. She became an unruly child. But her mother, a singer, did her best to control her, and to direct her to music. The first attempts to teach her the piano were unsuccessful. But she was more amendable to her uncle’s suggestion that she be directed to her theater. This was vigorously rejected by the mother who considered acting a dishonorable profession. But singing was something the mother could encourage. When she was about thirteen, Bidú began studying voice with Hélèna Théodorini, three times a week, for four years.
“ Stubborn and spoiled, I insisted on having the
best teacher available. but Elena Teodorini,
the great Rumanian soprano who had sung at La Scala
and was settled in
Than, suddenly , a major problem arose. Madame Teodorini had decided that the time had come for her to
return to her native
From
* The Last Prima Donnas, by Lanfranco Rasponi, Alfred A Knopf, Bidú Sayão, pp. 507, 1982. ISBN 0-394-52153-6