Maria Dolores Pradera
María Dolores Fernández Pradera (Madrid; August 29, 1924 - May 28, 2018), artistically María Dolores Pradera, was a melodic singer and actress Spanish. Her artistic career began in 1943, becoming a leading figure in the theater, later as a film actress and finally a singer in live shows.
Given the success of his recordings, he toured several countries, especially in Latin America, and dedicated himself entirely to song from the beginning of the 1970s. Due to his work, he achieved greater worldwide fame for spreading some genres of music. Latin American popular music, Spanish song and the work of its greatest authors.
Due to her personality on stage, endowed with a deep, forceful voice and elegant gestures, she is popularly known as The Great Lady of Song.
Biography
She was born in Madrid and was the third of four siblings. During her childhood she lived in Spain and Chile, where her father, an Asturian, had business. Her mother Carmen Pradera Fuster, originally Basque-French, she was widowed in 1935.
"I think in my eyes there is something inherited from my mother, the colourful and the vividness. I'm trying to be happy. If I'm not, I'm imposing it on me, I'm telling jokes about when I was a little girl and I laugh a lot, it was a fun joke. "María Dolores Pradera (Diario El País, 2011) [1]
In the 1940s she began working as a film and theater actress, while demonstrating her singing skills. She participated in films such as My life in your hands (1943), by Antonio de Obregón; I'm not getting married (1944), by Juan de Orduña; Major Altar (1944), by Gonzalo Delgrás, and in the company of Fernando Fernán Gómez in The inhabitants of the uninhabited house (1946), also by Delgrás, and Life in Shadows(1948), by Lorenzo Llobet Gracia.
"There was a piano and I did imitations of people listening on the radio. I had a little serious voice for such a girl, I was always very small and it was already seen that I was going to have a nice voice. Another season I was an actress and filled my life a lot, I was lucky to do a great theater, not for me, but for the authors, for the people who led me and the fellow actors. I worked with all the great Rodero, Lemos, Bodalo."María Dolores Pradera (Diario El País, 2011) [2]
She married Fernando Fernán Gómez on August 28, 1945. They separated in 1957 and obtained a divorce in the 1980s. They had two children Fernando and Helena.
"We were very authentic both of us, we married very young and maybe we rushed away. I always thought we would grow old together, but it wasn't. "María Dolores Pradera (Diario El País, 2011) [3]
Subsequently he performed in various theaters in Spain, France, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Mexico (a country where he developed his career and settled for years), performing works by Enrique Jardiel Poncela, José Zorrilla, Federico García Lorca or Edmond Rostand. She promptly returned to the theater in 1985 to perform the play Cándida , by George Bernard Shaw, directed by José Luis Alonso.
"At the theater I was lucky and I did very important things. Not for me, but for the authors I played, the directors who led me and the actors I shared with. It was a pretty long stage and it went very well. What happens is that I also sang and thought: "Well, I will rest a time of the theater, I sing a little bit and go back to the stage" but I have no longer been able, although I killed the gusanillo in 1985 with a work by Bernard Shaw, after which I returned to my commitments of the song. "María Dolores Pradera (Diario El Progreso, 2007) [4]
As a singer she was accompanied for thirty years by the guitarist brothers Santiago and Julián López Hernández, known as Los Gemelos. He has interpreted with great sensitivity and international success the songs of composers such as the Mexican José Alfredo Jiménez, the Peruvian Chabuca Granda, the Cuban Miguel Matamoros, the Uruguayan Alfredo Zitarrosa, the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui, the Chilean Violeta Parra and the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, in addition to many other Hispanic American authors.
"Iba (Hispanoamérica) because he had friends there and wanted him to sing, but he was afraid to sing in these countries. However, in 1969, when I finished the season Maria Pineda In the theater, I was hired to Colombia and went very well, that I was very well known and dear; from there I went to Mexico and also went very well, what happens is that now I feel to America away. What gives me more terror is airports, not airplanes or distances. This airport they made us in Madrid is terrifying, I'm very scared. "María Dolores Pradera (Diario El Progreso, 2007) [5]
His soft voice and his perfect diction in various records - raised, boleros, couplets, ranches, fados, etc. - as well as his great dramatic skills on stage, have turned their versions of "the flower of cinnamon", "Fine stamp", "Lima" or "The rosary of my mother", classics of the Peruvian song, in classics recognized worldwide. Precisely his version of "The Rosary of My Mother", released in 1961 by the Peruvian Group The Creole Trovers, turned the world giving him great international reputation.
"I was a smoker, but I stopped smoking right at age 60, not because I hurt my tobacco but because I smoked very ugly and my grandchildren made me mock. They imitated me with a wooden pen, which still exist, bit the cigars and they made them like I put them behind each other, like me. It didn't affect me, it didn't hurt my throat. I quit smoking because the kids were bringing friends out of school to see how their grandmother smoked. "María Dolores Pradera (Diario El País, 2011) [6]
His active participation in the artistic world of his country has allowed him Sabina, Luis Alegre; The Colombian Helenita Vargas, the Mexican Chavela Vargas and Lola Beltrán and the Argentines Alberto Cortez and Mercedes Sosa, among others. He was the first Spanish to sing at the Royal Albert Hall in London and also acted in the Madison Square Garden in New York.
"Look, I'm still on stage. He gave me a lot of compensation. He's filled my life: many trips, many friends. I value friendship a lot and I've met a lot of people. I owe the same to my actress career as I sing around here and over there."María Dolores Pradera (Diario de Córdoba, 2007) [7]
Among his latest works are various collaborations with Joaquín Sabina or Rosana without forgetting his discussion album to Carlos Cano, Andalusian singer -songwriter with whom he made the tour moorings . In 2006 he published a new album with the Sabandeños, entitled after the Time , which reached the Golden album.
In 2007 he launches a compilation on CD and DVD, entitled in good company , which collects his best duets with artists such as Joaquín Sabina, Caetano Veloso, Rosana, Víctor Manuel, Cachao López and Alberto Cortez.
In November 2008 I published a bolero accompanied by the Sabandeños and selecting eleven boleros among the best of the classic repertoire, where songs such as "with you in the distance" are included, "how have happened The years "(very popular in the voice of Rocío Dúrcal)," Green Road "," in a corner of the soul "or" I don't know why I love you ", among others.
In November 2012, a series of international artists, including Raphael, Joan Manuel Serrat, Joaquín Sabina, Pablo Alborán, Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel, Miguel Bosé, Miguel Poveda, Sergio Dalma, Passion Vega, Luis Eduardo Aute, Manolo García, Diana Navarro and Diego El Cigala, recorded an album entitled thanks to you, where they honor her accompanying her in the interpretation of her greatest successes.
A year later, in 2013, the second volume of the album with the collaborations of Bunbury, Ana Torroja, José Mercé, Sole Giménez and Amaia Montero, among others, was published. That same year she was awarded the Music Waves Award for the whole of her career.
In February 2012, a respiratory condition forced her to suspend some recitals and in May of that year he indefinitely canceled her musical tour. He only returned to the stage on June 21, 2013 at a concert by Miguel Poveda held in the Plaza de Sales bulls to interpret one of his emblematic songs "Fine stamp" together.
He died for natural causes in Madrid on May 28, 2018 at 93 years of age. It was incinerated in the Cemetery of the Almudena of Madrid.
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Character | Director | Gender | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | My life in your hands | Juana | Antonio de Obregón | Drama/Romance | 1h 29m |
| 1944 | Inés de Castro | Constance | Manuel Augusto García Viñolas | Romance/Bélico | 1h 32m |
| 1944 | Senior | Leonor | Gonzalo Delgrás | Drama | 1h 43m |
| 1944 | I don't care. | Enriqueta | Juan de Orduña | Comedy/Western | 1h 30m |
| 1945 | Proceeding | Emilia Mancha | Fernando Alonso Casares | Drama/Biographic | 1h 52m |
| 1945 | Crucial night | Ana Maria | July of Fleischner | Comedia | 1h 50m |
| 1946 | The inhabitants of the uninhabited house | Sibila | Gonzalo Delgrás | Drama/Terror | 1h 33m |
| 1946 | It's dangerous to look outside | Alejandro Ulloa, Arthur Duarte | Drama/Romance | 1h 27m | |
| 1947 | Embrujo | Tita | Carlos Serrano de Osma | Drama | 1h 20m |
| 1950 | Happy times | Enrique Gómez | Comedia | 1h 15m | |
| 1951 | Darkness and sun | Julia | José María Forqué | Drama | 1h 19m |
| 1952 | Life in shadows | Ana | Lorenzo Llobet Gracia | Drama | 1h 30m |
| 1953 | Fire in the blood | Ignacio Iquino | Drama/Tauromaquia | 1h 30m | |
| 1953 | Flight 971 | Monica | Rafael J. Salvia | Drama | 1h 30m |
| 1953 | Spanish Fantasy | Ana Maria | Javier Setó | Comedia | 1h 33m |
| 1954 | Dance of desires | Isabel | Florián Rey | Drama | 1h 23m |
| 1954 | She died 15 years ago | Sintante | Rafael Gil | Drama/Intriga | 1h 41m |
| 1955 | Zalacaín the adventurer | Ignacia | Juan de Orduña | Drama/Romance | 1h 35m |
| 1958 | Carlota | Margaret. | Enrique Cahen Salaberry | Comedia/Intriga | 1h 40m |
| 1960 | There's someone behind the door. | Elena | Tulio Demicheli | Comedia/Intriga | 1h 29m |
| 1962 | Dinner of marriages | Julia | Alfonso Balcázar | Drama/Comedia | 1h 27m |
| 1966 | Lesson of Toledo | José Luis Borau | Short film/Documental | ||
| 1971 | The edge | Mother Superior | Luis Lucia | Drama/Bélico | 1h 36m |
Theatre (selection)
- Husband and a half (1950), by Fernando Fernán Gómez
- They were all my children. (1953), Arthur Miller.
- Soledad (1953), by Miguel de Unamuno.
- Don Juan Tenorio (1954, 1955, 1956, 1961), by José Zorrilla.
- Cyrano de Bergerac (1955) by Edmond Rostand.
- Process of Jesus (1956), Diego Fabbri.
- Interests created (1956) by Jacinto Benavente.
- The garden of the cherry trees (1960), Antón Chéjov.
- The rhinoceros (1961) by Eugène Ionesco.
- The deceased (1962) by Miguel de Unamuno.
- The perfect three married (1965), by Alejandro Casona
- Intermezzo (1965), by Jean Giraudoux.
- Mariana Pineda (1967), by Federico García Lorca.
- Candida (1985), by George Bernard Shaw
Discography
Studio albums
- María Dolores Pradera (Friends) (1966)
- María Dolores Pradera (And now...) (1967)
- María Dolores Pradera (Six years) (1968)
- Pa’ all year (1969)
- María Dolores Pradera (Daughter) (1969)
- María Dolores Pradera Canta (The time you're free) (1970)
- María Dolores Pradera (Seven and a thousand times) (1971)
- María Dolores Pradera (Don't call him) (1972)
- María Dolores Pradera (I gave you the rein) (1973)
- Spanish songs (1974)
- María Dolores Pradera (Pope of sand) (1974)
- María Dolores Pradera (Loneliness) (1975)
- María Dolores Pradera (The King) (1975)
- Maria Dolores Pradera with The Twins (Mother beauty) (1976)
- Pole margariteño (1977)
- Canta María Dolores Pradera (Your love is over) (1977)
- Paloma, take him. (1981)
- Old horse (1983)
- Reverdecer (1986)
- To my friends (1987)
- Maria Dolores (1989) (Double live record)
- By right (1991)
- Let's go. (1996)
- As hearts (1999)
- A Carlos Cano (2001)
- Songs of the soul (2003)
- Memories (2003) (Recollection of singles and EPs not previously collected in LP and two new topics)
- After the time (2006)
- In good company (2007)
- I sing you a bolero (2008)
- Thank you, Vol.1 (2012)
- Thank you, Vol.2 (2013)
- Origins (2014) (Recollection of first singles and EP not previously collected in LP)
Compilations
- Success (1967)
- María Dolores Pradera (Canary Islands) (1969)
- María Dolores Pradera (When my guitar cries) (1973)
- For lands of America (1975)
- Tribute to José Alfredo Jiménez (1975)
- Gold Album (1980)
- Tribute to Chabuca Granda (1984)
- Esencia de mujer – The most beautiful songs (2000)
- They sing like this (2003)
Prizes
Throughout her career she has won numerous Spanish and international awards, both for her theatrical work and for her career as a singer, such as the National Theater Award, the Medal of Fine Arts, the Lara Award and the Latin Grammy for musical excellence. On October 7, 2016, he was awarded the decoration of the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso
- Spanish National Theatre Award.
- Grammy Latino to Musical Excellence 2008.
- Lara Prize, 1962-1964-1992.
- Commander of the Order of Elizabeth the Catholic.
- Orchid Prize
- Gold Medal to merit in the Fine Arts, 1999.
- Lares Award for "Active Life".
- Honor Friend Award, 2001.
- Gold Medal to Merit at Work, 2001.
- Alfonso Ussía Award for Musical Trayectoria, 2010.
- Dial Prize, 1996 (First awarded).
- Ondas Award for Musical Path, 2013.
- Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X el Sabio, 2016.