Elsa Saque

The soprano Elsa Saque (1946), born in Amadora, began her musical studies and piano training at the Academia de Amadores de Música in 1958. In 1961, she moved to the National Conservatory, where she studied piano with Lúcio Mendes and composition with Armando José Fernandes. At the age of 15, she began vocal studies with Arminda Correia and joined the Coro Vocal Feminino Harmonia. She made her debut at the Teatro da Trindade in 1965, performing the role of the Shepherd in Puccini’s Tosca, and remained a resident singer there until 1975 as part of the Companhia Portuguesa de Ópera. In 1966, she made her debut at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, singing the role of Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco.¹

Also in 1966, supported by a scholarship from the Institute for High Culture, she moved to Italy for three years, studying at the Centro di Avviamento al Teatro Lirico in Palermo and in Florence under the guidance of Gino Becchi. Her Italian debut took place in January 1967 at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, in Dallapiccola’s Volo di notte.²

Later, following the dissolution of the Teatro da Trindade company, she joined the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos as a resident singer from 1975 to 1992, performing numerous leading roles.³ Over the course of her career, she appeared in more than 1,000 opera performances in leading roles, frequently alongside internationally renowned singers such as Alfredo Kraus, Carl Bergonzi, Franco Corelli, and Teresa Berganza. She received several national and international singing awards. Together with conductors Manuel Ivo Cruz and Armando Vidal, she was a founding member of the Ópera de Câmara do Real Teatro de Queluz. She also taught at the National Conservatory between 1988 and 1998, and from that time onward at the Lisbon School of Music.⁴