Disappearance: Christiane Eda-Pierre, a huge voice from Martinique
Martinican soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre performing the opera “Saint-François d'Assise”, by Olivier Messiaen, at the Paris Opera, November 25, 1983. Joël Robine / AFP
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A heavenly voice has died down.
The Martinican soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre, the first black singer from France to make a major international career, had embodied the Angel by Olivier Messiaen for the creation of “Saint-François d'Assise” in the 1980s. She died Sunday, September 6 at the age of 88 of natural causes.
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For Christiane Eda-Pierre, music was a family affair.
With an organist grandmother and a flautist grandfather, she started playing the piano at the age of 7 with her mother.
Following in the footsteps of her aunt, the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne and activist for the black cause, the young Martiniquaise flies to Paris at the age of 17.
She joined the Conservatory, from which she left three years later with three first prizes in lyric singing.
She was the Angel of Messiaen for the creation of Saint Francis of Assisi, the soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre died Sunday, September 5 at the age of 88.https: //t.co/d11UIDhwIh
France Musique (@francemusique) September 7, 2020
International career
Less than a year later, Christiane Eda-Pierre made her debut in Nice, then distinguished herself in the prestigious Aix-en-Provence festival before starting, from 1966, an increasingly international career which l 'will bring to Vienna, Lisbon, London and New York.
From baroque music to contemporary works, with a predilection for Mozart, Christiane Eda-Pierre flew from triumph to triumph.
She rubbed shoulders with the greatest artists of her time, from the French director Patrice Chéreau to the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, with this particular commitment to the defense of black artists in all the arts.
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