Romanian mezzo-soprano awarded France's Legion of Honor

Mezzo-soprano Viorica Cortez is set to receive the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, according to a decree issued on July 13.

Born in Bucium in 1935, Cortez started her career aged 17, as a soloist of the Gavriil Musicescu Choir in Iaşi. She studied at the music school and the conservatory in the city and at the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest.

She won several singing competitions, in Toulouse (1964), the International Vocal Competition' s-Hertogenbosch (1965) and the George Enescu Competition (Bucharest, 1967).

After working for the Bucharest Opera, she left Romania in 1970. She currently resides in Paris.

Throughout her career, she performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Paris Opera, Arena di Verona, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, or the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

(Photo: Aurel Virlan, courtesy of Asociația pentru Muzică, Artă și Cultură)