Natalie Bodanya

Natalie Bodanya (August 23, 1908 – March 4, 2007) was an American operatic soprano born Natalia Bodanskaya in Manhattan, New York, who maintained an active international career from the late 1920s through the 1940s. She grew up on the Upper East Side, where a neighbor connected her with music lessons at the Union Settlement school and later arranged an audition with the celebrated coloratura soprano Marcella Sembrich. Sembrich accepted Bodanya as a student and supported her enrollment at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she subsequently pursued further vocal training under Sylvan Levin.

Bodanya made her professional opera debut on December 26, 1929, performing the role of Blonde in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company at the Academy of Music, under conductor Emil Młynarski. At that time she performed under the name Natalie Bodanskaya, which she shortened to Bodanya on December 22, 1936, to reduce confusion with mezzo-soprano Ina Bourskaya and conductor Artur Bodanzky.

Following several years with smaller American companies, Bodanya was invited by Edward Johnson to join the principal roster of the Metropolitan Opera. Her Met debut came on May 11, 1936, as Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, alongside Bruna Castagna in the title role, Armand Tokatyan as Don José, Carlo Morelli as Escamillo, and conductor Gennaro Papi. Her portrayal of Micaela was subsequently featured on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of January 7, 1937. Among her other notable Met appearances was the role of Elisetta in the company's first staging of Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto on February 25, 1937, with Muriel Dickson, Irra Petina, George Rasely, Louis D'Angelo, and conductor Ettore Panizza. Her additional roles at the Met included Musetta in La Bohème, Papagena in The Magic Flute, the Forest Bird in Siegfried, Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande, Poussette in Manon, Ellen in Lakmé, an American Girl in Walter Damrosch's The Man Without a Country, the First Esquire in Parsifal, an Errand Girl in Louise, and an orphan in Der Rosenkavalier. She took a brief hiatus following her 1938 marriage to William Gorman, a philosophy professor who collaborated with Mortimer Adler, before returning to the Met stage. Her 157th and final Met performance took place on January 16, 1942, as Esmeralda in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, with Jarmila Novotná, Tokatyan, Karl Laufkötter, Norman Cordon, Thelma Votipka, and conductor Paul Breisach.

Bodanya was also active as a guest artist in European opera houses and concerts, and in 1938 she canceled her contracts with both the Vienna State Opera and La Scala in protest of the anti-Semitic policies of the Italian and Austrian governments. Beyond the opera stage, she performed in nightclubs, appeared on radio broadcasts, and recorded songs with Mario Lanza.

After taking time away from performing following the birth of her son Paul, Bodanya joined the New York City Opera during the company's inaugural 1943–1944 season. Her first appearance with the NYCO was as Musetta in the company's first staging of La Bohème, and she also sang the role of Nedda in Pagliacci with the company in 1944. These performances constitute her Broadway credits, with appearances in I Pagliacci and La Bohème between 1944 and 1945.

In the 1950s Bodanya began a second career as a singing teacher in California. She died in Santa Barbara, California, on March 4, 2007, at the age of 98.