{{Short description|Catalan operatic soprano}} {{No footnotes|date=October 2009}} {{infobox person | name = Mercedes Capsir | image = Mercè_Capsir_i_Vidal.jpg | image_upright = | caption = Capsir on the magazine ''El Teatre Català'', 23 August 1913 | birth_name = Mercè Capsir i Vidal | birth_date = {{birth date|1895|7|20|df=yes}} | birth_place = Barcelona, Kingdom of Spain | death_date = {{death date and age|1969|3|13|1895|7|20|df=yes}} | death_place = Suzzara, Italy | occupation = Operatic soprano | years_active = 1913–1949 }} '''Mercedes Capsir''' ({{IPA|ca|məɾˈsɛðəs kəpˈsi}}; 20 July 1895 – 13 March 1969) was a Catalan opera singer, a high coloratura soprano, particularly associated with light Italian roles, such as Lucia and Gilda.
== Life and career == Mercedes Capsir was born in Barcelona, in the same house where another Spanish soprano, Maria Barrientos, had been born 12 years earlier. She studied (piano, composition, voice) at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu, before making her debut in Genora, in 1913, as Gilda in ''Rigoletto'', a role she will remain closely associated with throughout her career.
In 1916, she made her debut at the Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, as well as at the Paris Opera in 1917. Gilda was her debut role at all these opera houses.
Her Italian debut took place in Bologna, as Rosina in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'', followed by Elvira in ''I puritani'', in Venice, opposite Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, she also appeared in Rome, before reaching La Scala in Milan, in 1924, again as Gilda, opposite baritone Carlo Galeffi and tenor Miguel Fleta, and conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
Capsir sang mainly in Europe, and in a very limited repertory, other roles included: Amina in ''La sonnambula'', Lucia in ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', and Violetta in ''La traviata''. She took part in performances of Giordano's ''Il Re'' at La Scala in 1929.
Capsir retired from the stage in 1949, her final performance took place at the Liceu in Barcelona, as Carolina in ''Il matrimonio segreto'', and then turned to teaching. She died, aged 73, in Suzzara (Lombardy, Italy).
Mercedes Capsir recorded in 1928, complete versions of ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' and ''Rigoletto'', opposite Riccardo Stracciari and Dino Borgioli. She also recorded the first ever complete ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' and ''La traviata''. In Spain and also for the Columbia Record Co. she recorded the Spanish zarzuela "Marina" by Arrieta in a performance which also featured Hipolito Lazaro and Jose Mardones.
== Sources == * Alain Pâris, ''Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle'' (2 vols), Éditions Robert Laffont (Bouquins, Paris 1982, 4th ed. 1995, 5th Edn 2004). {{ISBN|2-221-06660-X}} * Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, (orig. H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, French edition), ''Guide de l’opéra'', Les indispensables de la musique (Fayard, 1995). {{ISBN|2-213-01563-5}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Capsir, Mercedes}} Category:1895 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Opera singers from Catalonia Category:Spanish operatic sopranos Category:Fonotipia Records artists Category:20th-century Spanish women opera singers Category:Singers from Barcelona Category:Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu alumni