Suzanne Sarroca


Suzanne Sarroca is a 20th-century French operatic soprano.

Biography

Born in Carcassonne, Sarroca studied singing at the . She began her career as a mezzo-soprano in the role of Charlotte in Massenet's Werther in Carcassonne, a role she revived the same year at the Capitole de Toulouse. In 1951 she sang Bizet's Carmen at la Monnaie of Brussels.
She then addressed the great roles of lyrico-dramatic soprano: in 1952, she made a remarkable debut at the Paris Opera where she sang at both the Opéra Garnier and the Opéra-Comique:
She created Henri Rabaud's Numance, interpreted the title role of Charpentier's Louise, Blanche de la Force in Poulenc's Le Dialogue des Carmélites, Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and also Octavian in Strauss's Rosenkavalier alongside Régine Crespin or Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
For more than thirty years, she has been active in the major theatres of the provinces: Toulouse, Strasbourg, Marseille, Bordeaux and Nice.
Especially sought abroad for her embodiments of Puccini's Tosca, and Verdi's Aida and Elisabeth in Don Carlos, she triumphed in these roles in Buenos Aires, Brussels, Geneva, Rome, Rio, Naples, London.
Starting in the 1980s, she again took on certain mezzo roles, notably Mère Marie de l'Incarnation in Dialogues des Carmélites in Strasbourg in 1982.
She was the director of the Atelier lyrique of the Opéra national du Rhin and teacher at the 9th arrondissement of Paris conservatory until 1992.
She last lives and teaches in Paris.
She also can be heard in excerpts form Cavalleria Rusticana with Alain Vanzo, Giulietta in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann published at Adès. She also recorded Tosca in French with Gustave Botiaux and Adrien Legros. Another testimony of this role exists in LP at London with José Luccioni. Her interpretation of Balkis in Gounod's La Reine de Saba alongside Gilbert Py and Gérard Serkoyan is available at Gala. In the volume devoted to the French song of the Encyclopedia on CD-ROM by Richters, she can be heard in her complete incarnations of Salome in Massenet's Hérodiade and Elisabeth in Don Carlos. Her interpretation of Rachel in Halévy's La Juive in a concert at Carnegie Hall with Richard Tucker in 1964 has been briefly available on CD and in large excerpts from by Henry Fevrier