2023-09-25 20:45:54
The singer and cabaret artist Marie-Thérèse Escribano died on Monday followingnoon at the age of 97 in a Vienna hospital. A close friend of the versatile artist, who was born in Paris, grew up in Madrid, studied in Brussels and lived in Vienna for decades, made this known to the APA.
Escribano was born in Paris on March 19, 1926 to a Belgian mother and a Spanish father and grew up in Madrid. After studying at the Madrid University of Music, she continued her studies in Brussels, where one evening she heard a guest performance by the then State Opera Ensemble with greats such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Irmgard Seefried and Anton Dermota. “I heard these famous singers and was fascinated. I thought to myself, that’s exactly what I want to learn, and following my mother died, I went to Vienna,” Escribano once recalled in an APA interview Going to Vienna in 1955 – a city that she perceived as multicultural: “There were very different nationalities and not much xenophobia – I liked that.”
And so she stayed, was admitted to the then Academy of Music and Performing Arts and discovered her preference for modern avant-garde music. In 1959, Escribano sang Pierre Boulez’s “Improvisations sur Mallarmé” in the ensemble in the series around Friedrich Cerha in the Konzerthaus and was convincing. The singer also gave concerts across Europe with greats such as Lorin Maazel and Mauricio Kagel with avant-garde works.
However, the artist did not stop at new music. A few years later she met Klaus and Michel Walter, who were involved in early music. When the two of them showed the singer medieval instruments, she was thrilled. Together they founded the ensemble Les Menestrels.
In the mid-70s, Escribano once once more demonstrated her versatility and moved into the theater milieu. “It’s a great blessing when the inner layers of the onion scream so loudly that they become audible,” she recalled, referring to the onion parable from “Peer Gynt” regarding the motivation for this change. Afterwards she increasingly concentrated on what she herself called “small pieces”. She refused to be called a cabaret artist. “I am proud of my programs because they are always my own texts.” At the same time, these performances were always characterized by great spontaneity. Her programs had titles like “Seems Spanish to me”, “The older I am” and “90:90” when she reviewed her life in 90 minutes for her 90th birthday.
The commitment of the holder of the Silver Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna was never limited to the spotlight, but also included the space behind the stage, as Escribano, as a trained singer, gave workshops as well as singing and language lessons for many years. She herself rejected the term “voice training” as being too reminiscent of dressage and invented her method of “vocal liberation” – a term that fits perfectly with the life of Marie-Thérèse Escribano, which has now come to an end following more than 97 years.
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