Francisco D'Andrade

Life and career

D'Andrade was born in Lisbon. His father was a prominent jurist there, and he initially trained as a lawyer. However, like his older brother António, D'Andrade also had a keen interest in opera and theatre. Both frequently attended performances in the Teatro do Ginásio and participated in amateur productions with the Sociedade Taborda. He studied the basics of acting and music with Manuel Carreira and Arturo Pontecchi, the principal conductor of the Teatro São Carlos, and gave his first public recital in 1879 at the Salão da Trindade in Lisbon. In the spring of 1881, he left for Milan to continue his musical training, first with the tenor Corrado Miraglia, and after Miraglia's death later that year with the baritone Sebastiano Ronconi.

D'Andrade made his operatic debut on 23 December 1882 at the Teatro Principe Amedeo in Sanremo as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida. Over the next four years he sang in the opera houses of Portugal, Spain and Italy, including the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, where he sang Count de Luna in Verdi's Il trovatore and Severo in the theatre's first performance of Donizetti's Poliuto. Both he and his brother were engaged as singers at the Théâtre Privé d'Opéra in Moscow for the 1885/86 season. They would appear together again in several other productions, most notably the 1888 world premiere of Alfredo Keil's Donna Bianca at the Teatro São Carlos with Francisco as Adaour and António as Aben-Afan.

D'Andrade began a five-year association with the Royal Italian Opera in London in 1886. During that time he sang a wide range of leading baritone roles with the company including Renato (Ballo in maschera), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Escamillo (Carmen), Giorgio Germont (La traviata), Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor), Telramund (Lohengrin), and the title roles in Rigoletto and Don Giovanni. Throughout his career he was widely admired for his portrayal of Don Giovanni and also sang it at the Salzburg Festival in 1901.

Although he continued to tour Europe as a guest singer and recitalist, D'Andrade spent his later career primarily based in Germany, where in 1894, he received the Grand Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from William II of Württemberg. He had a villa in Bad Harzburg which became an unofficial centre of Portuguese culture in Germany and sang regularly with the Frankfurt Opera from 1891 to 1910 as well as several other major German opera houses. He had first sung with the Berlin Hofoper in 1889 and became an official member of the company in 1906 remaining a member until his retirement.

D'Andrade moved back to Lisbon during World War I, but returned to Germany and the Hofoper after the war ended in 1918. He retired from the stage in 1919 and died in Berlin two years later at the age of 65. His body was taken back to Lisbon, where he was buried in the family tomb. He was survived by his wife, the Austrian pianist and singer Irma Noethig, whom he had married in 1900, and their son Francisco António Luís de Andrade. His widow later returned to Vienna, where she died in 1937.