Contralto Update: Natalie Burdeny

Canadian contralto Natalie Burdeny will be starring in a new opera about the life of the sculptor Camille Claudel, which is being performed by the International Opera Theater to mark it's 10th anniversary. She will be creating the role of "Old Camille". 

Camille Claudel was brought up in the stark landscape of Villeneuve-sur-Fère, and later moved to the Montparnasse area of Paris with he mother, younger sister and brother, Paul, who would become a poet and diplomat. She enrolled at the Académie Colarossi and began her studies with sculptor Alfred Boucher, who later asked Auguste Rodin to take over as tutor of his pupils.

Claudel's relationship to Rodin was a stormy one. She became his model, muse and lover, though he never lived with her. After she had an unwanted abortion, she left her family home (her mother did not approve of her artistic life, though her father did) and stopped the physical side of her relationship with Rodin.

Later, she seemed to become mentally ill, exhibiting signs of paranoia. She destroyed several of her statues, and accused Rodin of leading a conspiracy to kill her. She was incarcerated at the behest of her mother and brother. She died abandoned by her family, who kept her in the asylum against the advice of her doctors, who regularly proposed that she be released.

None of her family attended her funeral.

The performance dates are as follows:

July 31st @ 9:15 pm - Teatro degli Avvaloranti, Città della Pieve
August 1st @ 9:15 pm - Teatro degli Avvaloranti, Città della Pieve
August 2nd @ 9:15 pm - Teatro degli Avvaloranti, Città della Pieve
August 6th @ 9:15 pm - Pavia, Province of Pavia
August 8th @ 9:15 pm - Pavia, Province of Pavia