Lily Pons – Biography of Lily Pons

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Lily pons, stage name of Alice Joséphine Pons was an American soprano known for her vocal range, musical abilities, and warmth of expression. She was associated with the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 30 years.

Of French and Italian descent, Alice Joséphine Pons He was born on April 12, 1898 in Draguignan, France. As a child she played the piano, and at the age of 13 she entered the Paris Conservatory. His poor health and the First World War interrupted his studies for several years, but after the war he began to play naive roles in Paris under the name of Lily pons.

She left the theater in 1923 after her marriage to August Mesritz, which encouraged her to study singing. In 1925 he began taking lessons with Alberti di Gorostiaga. In 1928 he made his operatic debut in the title role of Lakméby Léo Delibes at the Mulhouse Opera in Mulhouse, Alsace, France. After a year or less of singing in the opera houses of the French provinces, Pons went to the United States and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, in January 1931 with the opera by Gaetano Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor. His brilliant soprano coloratura was an immediate critical and popular success. Her beauty, diminutive figure, and extraordinary dramatic ability made her a public favorite for a quarter of a century, and she was long considered the most glamorous star on the opera stage.

Pons remained with the Metropolitan for more than three decades as the first soprano famous for performing French and Italian coloratura parts, including The daughter of the regiment by Donizetti and The Sleepwalker by Vincenzo Bellini when we have the information. She was the first soprano to reach the high E of “Song bell” on Lakmé.

Pons appeared in several movies, including I Dream Too Much (1935), That girl from paris (1936), and Hitting a New High (1937), and was also a popular radio actress. In 1938, after having divorced her first husband, she married the conductor André Kostelanetz. That same year he was awarded the French Legion of Honor. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1940.

Together with Kostelanetz she went on numerous successful concert tours, until her divorce in 1958. Pons effectively retired as the reigning diva of the Met in 1956, after a party celebrating her 25th anniversary there, despite the fact that her official retirement did not. it was produced until 1964.

His last public performance was in May 1972 at a concert by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kostelanetz. A community in Maryland was named Lilypons in his honor.

He died on February 13, 1976 in Dallas, at the age of seventy-seven, after suffering from pancreatic cancer. His remains were interred in the Cannes cemetery, on the French Riviera.