The soprano Maria Júdice da Costa (1870–1960), born in Lisbon, showed an early aptitude for singing and theater, studying at the Conservatório between the ages of nine and nineteen—first piano, and later voice with António Melchior Oliver. Her successful debut took place at a benefit concert for the victims of the Teatro Baquet fire, held at the Teatro de São Carlos on April 12, 1888.¹
Her operatic debut followed at the same Teatro de São Carlos on January 31, 1890, in a performance of La Gioconda, alongside singers such as Eva Tetrazzini and Giuseppina Pasqua. Owing to her success, during that debut season she also appeared in performances of Le roi de Lahore, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Carmen.²
At the end of that season, she traveled to Italy on a scholarship granted by the Portuguese government to further her musical studies, making her debut there on October 18, 1890, at the Teatro Garibaldi in Padua, in Norma. She was well received by the public and thus began a successful international career.³
In 1921, she made her debut in spoken theater in Lisbon, a field in which she would also develop a career in Brazil. In the same year, she appeared in two films produced by Invicta Film (Amor de perdição, directed by George Pallu, and Mulheres da Beira, directed by Rino Lupo), and in 1928 she took part in a third (Fátima Milagrosa, directed by Rino Lupo).⁴
In 1938, she ended her stage career, and the following year settled in Italy. She returned from Milan to Lisbon in 1943, where she died in 1960.⁵
