Opera Singer. A lyric soprano of small stature and great beauty, she is remembered as one of the world's leading performers for more than two decades. Born Balduina de Oliveira Sayao to a distinguished family that was left in financially-reduced circumstances by her father's death, she studied voice with Elena Teodorini and made her operatic debut in Rio de Janeiro at 18 as the title heroine of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." Bidu followed Miss Teodorini to Romania where she sang a few concerts before being admitted to the Nice, France, school run by the great Polish tenor-turned-teacher, Jean de Reszke, whose last student she would be. Following de Reszke's death, she was engaged by the Teatro Costanzi of Rome, which was then being run by retired soprano Emma Carelli, and made her 1926 debut there as Rosina in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville." (After Miss Carelli's 1928 death, a romance developed between her husband, impresario Walter Mocchi, and Bidu, and though a marriage resulted, it was brief). In the early stages of her career, Bidu sang coloratura roles such as Lucia, Rosina, Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos," the doomed Gilda of Verdi's "Rigoletto," and two Bellini leads, Amina of "La sonnambula" and Elvira from "I puritani," but was gradually to take on the lyric repertoire and her signature pieces, Violetta from Verdi's "La Traviata," Mimi in Puccini's "La Boheme," two Mozart heroines, Susanna of "The Marriage of Figaro" and Zerlina from "Don Giovanni," as well as the title leads of Massenet's "Manon" and Charles Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette." Bidu debuted at La Scala Milano in 1930 as Rosina and was first seen at both the Paris Opera and the Opera-Comique the next year as Juliette. In 1935, she married baritone Giuseppe Danise, the union lasting until Danise's 1963 death. Her first U.S. appearance on December 30, 1935, at Town Hall, New York, was followed by her January 21, 1936, American operatic debut on with the Washington National Opera as the title lead of Leo Delibes' "Lakme." At a 1936 social function, Bidu met Maestro Arturo Toscanini who had earlier heard her sing "Violetta" and admired her work; the great conductor was to promote her career and to be on the podium for her 1936 Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Philharmonic in the Debussy song cycle "La Demoiselle Elue." Bidu toured Brazil between 1935 and 1937, but after being booed in her last performance in Rio de Janeiro, due to the machinations of a jealous soprano, vowed never to sing in her native land again. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came on February 13, 1937, as Massenet's "Manon." Before leaving the venerable house in 1952, she sang there 212 times in 12 different operas, "Mimi" being her most frequently portrayed character with 46 appearances. A regular in Chicago and San Francisco throughout her American career, Bidu continued making operatic guest appearances thru 1954 and sang recitals until her complete retirement in 1957. She and Danise purchased an oceanfront property in Lincolnville, Maine, where she lived the rest of her years. Bidu last visited Brazil, where she had remained a citizen and a popular figure despite her artistic problems, in 1995. A portion of her fairly large recorded legacy remains in print, including a rendering of "La Demoiselle Elue," a number of operatic arias and Brazilian folk songs, a complete studio "La Boheme" with Richard Tucker as Rodolfo, and a February 1, 1947, 'live' Metropolitan "Romeo et Juliette" in which she partnered tenor Jussi Bjoerling with Emil Cooper on the podium. The recipient of multiple decorations for entertaining the troops during World War II, she was a posthumous inductee into the Grammy Hall-of-Fame. Since 2000, Brazil has held the Bidu Sayao International Vocal Competition in her memory.