Rina Massardi

Romarina Massardi (21 June 1897 – 23 July 1979) was an Italian-Uruguayan canto lírico singer, actress, and film director, responsible for the first South American lyric film, released in 1938.[1]

Rina Massardi
Born
Romarina Massardi

(1897-06-21)21 June 1897
Virle Treponti, Brescia, Italy
Died23 July 1979(1979-07-23) (aged 82)
Montevideo, Uruguay
NationalityUruguayan, Italian
OccupationFilmmaker, actress, opera singer
Notable work
¿Vocación?

Biography

Romarina Massardi was born in Virle Treponti, a town near Brescia, the daughter of an Italian marble worker who moved the family to Montevideo to work on the construction of the Legislative Palace. She studied lyrical singing there, began to sing professionally, and performed in different venues of the country.[2] In 1923 she received a scholarship to study in Milan, and then at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

In 1930 she began her career as a soprano, performing at the Solís Theatre in Montevideo and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 1934 she traveled to the United States, recorded her trip with a 16 mm camera, and conceived the project of writing a script and making a film. Upon returning to Montevideo she began the realization of this plan. The result would be released four years later.

It was her only movie, although she continued to film trips and family events until 1951. She continued her performing career until 1956 and then devoted herself to singing lessons. She died in 1979 at age 82.

¿Vocación?

The film, titled ¿Vocación?, was 1 hour and 3 minutes long. Created, directed, interpreted, and produced by Rina, it premiered in Montevideo in August 1938 without great public success. It was exhibited in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela. In 1939 it was selected for the 7th Venice Film Festival.[1][3]

The protagonist Eva Lauri, played by Massardi, travels to the capital with aspirations to become a lyric singer, and thanks to her faith she succeeds.[4] The story has a self-referential character.

Recognition

In 2013, the Uruguayan visual artist Inés Olmedo published her research on the life and work of the artist, and held exhibitions under the title Rina, la primera, contributing to the legitimization of Rina Massardi as the first Uruguayan woman filmmaker and the glorification and knowledge of her work.[5][6]

References
  1. Martínez Carril, Manuel; Zapiola, Guillermo. "La historia no oficial del cine uruguayo (1898–2002)" [The Unofficial History of Uruguayan Cinema (1898–2002)] (PDF) (in Spanish). Cinemateca Uruguaya. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  2. Schinca, Milton (1977). Boulevard Sarandí: 250 años de Montevideo: anécdotas, gentes, sucesos, Tomo 2 [Boulevard Sarandí: 250 Years of Montevideo: Anecdotes, People, Events, Volume 2] (in Spanish). Ediciones de la Banda Oriental. pp. 143–144. Retrieved 14 June 2018 – via Google Books.
  3. Twenty Years of Cinema in Venice. Edizioni dell'Ateneo. 1952. p. 514. Retrieved 14 June 2018 – via Google Books.
  4. Ignacio Pernas, José (4 December 2002). "El cine en Uruguay, II" (in Spanish). Instituto Cervantes. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  5. "Rina, la primera" (in Spanish). Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires. November 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  6. "Reencuentro con Rina Massardi en el Zorrilla" [Rediscovery of Rina Massardi at the Zorrilla]. El País (in Spanish). 9 October 2014. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
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