Olga Díaz Sampera

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Born in Havana. A graduate of Civil Law, she abandoned the practice of law to dedicate herself professionally to music, which she studied at the Instituto Musical Luis E. Lecuona and at the Conservatorio Levy.

She had as singing teachers Carmelina Santana, Francisco F. Dominicis, Zoila Potts, Lidia Valdés, Orestes Lois, and Liliana Yablenska.

She was part of the choirs during the opera seasons of the Sociedad Pro Arte Musical (1956-1959).

She participated in the premiere in Cuba of the operas Amalia al baile by Menotti; Il tabarro by Puccini, and La solterona y el ladrón by Menotti.

She is a founding member of the Teatro Lírico Nacional de Cuba; she was part of its first choir and performed small roles in Luisa Fernanda (1963, Rosita) and La traviata (1964, Annina).

The following year she sang El matrimonio secreto (Elisetta) and La verbena de la Paloma (Casta), alongside Palacios. She has also performed in Molinos de viento (Margarita); La del manojo de rosas (Ascención); La leyenda del beso (Simeona); Los claveles (Jacinta); La del soto del parral (Catalina); La bohème (Musetta).

Her preferred repertoire, however, consists of chamber operas La serva padrona (Serpina), La médium (Mrs. Gobineau), El teléfono (Lucy), and especially Rita (title role), whose interpretation won her a prize in the first edition of the Concurso de Escenas Líricas de la UNEAC (1989).

She has completed the Spanish translation or revision of the libretti of Bastián y Bastiana, La serva padrona, El secreto de Susana, and has worked as an assistant to numerous stage directors.

She has been teaching singing for several decades and directs a lyric society of her creation that meets weekly at the Teatro Nacional de Cuba since 1991.

Olga has displayed an intense artistic, pedagogical, and professional life. She studied with important teachers from Cuba and other countries; she has sung alongside great bel-canto interpreters and assumed a large number of characters from famous national and international composers, impressing through the vitality that makes her an exemplary teacher worthy of imitation.

Her parents were Rodolfo Díaz del Pozo (from Havana) and Olga Enriqueta Sampera Moller (from Santiago), they had two children, Olguita, and a boy who sang and played guitar, but died at age six. From age two she lived in Santa Clara until she completed secondary school. There she studied at the Hurtado de Mendoza primary school (Escuela Pía), where she obtained "El beso de la Patria." At age 6 she was winner of the Second Prize in a Children's Song Contest at the CMHI radio station, accompanied on piano by maestro Felo Bergaza. She was a member of the school choir throughout primary school, where they performed a beautiful children's repertoire.

She began secondary school at the newly founded Colegio Martí, where she won several prizes in different subjects, studying up to 4th Year. When she completed secondary school, the family moved to Havana and she entered the University in the Civil Law program in 1950. During her studies she was a leader of the FEU where she had the opportunity to collaborate in massive activities of the Directorio Revolucionario, counting on the friendship and trust of José Antonio Echeverría, Fructuoso Rodríguez, and other young revolutionaries, such as Orlando Duque de Estrada and Amaury Noris, who managed to escape with their lives after the events of March 13, 1957.

In Santa Clara, she also collaborated with clandestine activities in the buying and selling of bonds, and in Civic Resistance guided by the M-26-7, where two companions very close to her lost their lives in these activities, Chiqui Gómez Lubín and Julio Pino Machado, with whose families she still maintains a great friendship.

Upon graduating in 1957, she obtained by competitive examination a position at the Notaria de Quemado de Güines, which she resigned from 2 years later to dedicate herself to singing.

After several years she created a beautiful family of artists since her husband Néstor Rivero was a singer and founder of the Teatro Lírico, and their three children, the oldest Néstor, an actor, Ivón, a pianist, and the youngest Juan Carlos studied cello and is a singer and pianist with the Grupo Moncada.

In Havana she studied singing with maestro Francisco Fernández Diminicci (a friend of G. Puccini). While attending the University, she simultaneously studied music at the Conservatorio Levy with professor Carmelina Santana Reyes. She took classes with soprano Zoila Potts (famous at that time), who had her own private academy.

After the triumph of the Revolution she was called to work at the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (MINREX) in the Department of Cultural Affairs of UNESCO, where she worked with the prestigious composer Gisela Hernández; being designated in 1962 to participate in the Jury that would decide the awarding of two singing scholarships in Italy.

At MINREX she worked until 1963 in various positions, where she worked with the outstanding poet and revolutionary María Villar Buseta in the institution's Library, where she wrote articles and made corrections for the Boletín del Ministerio de Cultura, which was directed by Dr. Mario Rodríguez Alemán.

She studied singing with foreign professors such as the Romanian Ana Talmachano; the Bulgarian Liliana Yablenska, who was assistant to Branberov, principal singing professor at the Institute for Vocalists in Sofia, Bulgaria, whose method is what was applied in Cuba and which she continues to use. With Orestes Lois, a Cuban who studied in Bulgaria, and when he returned transmitted his knowledge to the singers of the Lírico.

Simultaneously she worked as a professor of Choirs and Choral Direction at the Escuela Nacional de Instructores de Arte (ENIA) alongside Cuca Rivero and many distinguished musicians and intellectuals who participated in this task such as Alfredo Díaz Nieto, Nela del Rosario, Edmeé Laza, Enma Norka Ruíz, Conchita Moré, Cuqui Nicola, etc. Where she conducted entrance tests and voice classification and taught Vocal Technique and Conducting Schemes.

In 1962, she passed the course in the new group of the Teatro Direction of the Consejo Nacional de Cultura "Grupo Teatro Lírico," created for the performance of operas, operettas, and zarzuelas, where she continued until 1985, in the collective dedicated to opera; moving from this to the Complejo Cultural Mella and from there to RENAE, today artists of the Performing Arts.

She held the position of Head of the Singing Chair at the Escuela Nocturna Gerardo Delgado Guanches in Guanabacoa from 1967 to 1984. Her pedagogical work is carried out as a singer-illustrator also at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) and at the Escuela Nacional de Artes. She obtained by competitive examination the teaching rank of Instructor to be able to work in these two institutions.

She served as Assistant Director at the Teatro Lírico as needed by the center and as Choir Director in the absence of the titular director and on tours, performing leading roles in rehearsals and performances.

She participated in recordings of educational and children's programs, as well as recordings of lyric radio and television programs; such as with Cuca Rivero in Musical Education on Radio Rebelde (replacing Bertica González).

She studied English from childhood; holds a degree in Italian, French, and two courses of Russian. She took a postgraduate course in German phonetics applied to singing with professor Magaly Acosta at ISA, and completed others also applied to singing in Latin, Italian, Portuguese, and French. She passed courses in philosophy, political economy, and aesthetics, standing out in all of them.

She is a member of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC), member of the Contingente Cultural Juan Marinello of the CTC, member of the Círculo de Amigos de la Música de Conciertos of the Centro Nacional de la Música, and of the Módulo Cultural Mirtha Aguirre of the Casa de la Cultura de Plaza.

Founder of the Teatro Lírico Nacional Gonzalo Roig and the Ópera Nacional de Cuba, in both centers she was Secretary of the Work Council for eight years.

She has a varied and extensive repertoire of Cuban and international music, encompassing lyric genre, anthology, negro spirituals, romanzas, zarzuelas, operettas, operas, opera arias, etc. As well as characters from lyric works. Here are some of her performances:

Lover/ Il Tabarro by G. Puccini/ 1958.
Miss Pinkerton/ La Solterona y el Ladrón by Menotti/ 1959.
A Genius/ The Magic Flute by Mozart/ 1960.
Annina/ La Traviata by Verdi/ 1962.
Serpina/ La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi/ 1963.
Sister Genoveba—Sister/ Angélica by G. Puccini/ 1964.
Ñita/ Los Gavilanes by Guerrero/ 1965.
Rosaura/ Los Gavilanes by Guerrero/ 1966.
Margarita—Mills/ Wind by Luna/ 1967.
Simeona/ The Legend of the Kiss by Soutuyo and Vert/ 1968.
Teresa/ Marina by Arrieta/ 1969.
Jacinta/ Los Claveles by Serrano/ 1972.
Calina/ La del Soto del Parral by Soutuyo and Vert/ 1976.
Sofia/ Holka by Moniusko/ 1977.
Miss Gobineaus/ La Medium by Menotti/ 1982.
Inés/ Trovatore by Verdi/ 1983.
Countess Ceprano Rigoletto by Verdi 1992.

She worked in the following Groups

Madrigal Choir of Havana.
Choir of the A. Levy Conservatory by Aida Teseiro.
Madrigal Choir by Hilda Ruíz Castanedo.
Choir of Pro-Arte Musical directed by Professor Paul Czonka.
Choir of the Guanche Conservatory by Sarita Capote.
Choir of Cuca Rivero of Cuban Television.
Choir of the Teatro Lírico (Until 1968 when she became a Soloist).

She possesses multiple distinctions and decorations

Raúl Gómez García Distinction.
September 28 Distinction for founding the CDR.
August 23 Distinction for founding the FMC.
Distinction for Cuban Culture.
Distinction for Cuban Education.
Medal of Fine Arts.
Diploma for Pedagogical Merit.
Amadeo Roldán Diploma from UNEAC.
Diplomas and Certificates from Municipalities and Entities throughout the country for Collaboration and Promotion of the Lyric Genre.
National Vanguard of the CTC.
CTC Diploma for Outstanding Leader in 1984.
Diploma for Outstanding Soprano.
Certificate from the Martiana Chair of the University of Havana for the Course "Political Martí"
Consecutively Selected Outstanding Cenderista with accrediting certificates.
Certificates of Combatant Mother and Grandmother on multiple occasions with accrediting certificates.
For sustained work for Culture in the Community Project and the XX Years of Music Panorama at the TNC, the following institutions awarded her Diplomas: UNEAC, the Sociedad Cultural José Martí, the Culture Municipality, and the TNC.

Source: Ecured