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Freda Betti (26 February 1924 – 13 November 1979), whose birth name was Frédérique Thérèse Augusta Betti, was a French mezzo-soprano singer whose career was mainly confined to France. Central Opera Service bulletin, Volume 23, No. 1 . (1981). Obituary: Freda Betti. p. 39 She left a range of recordings representative of her repertoire.
She studied music and especially singing at the Conservatory of Nice with Édouard Rouard, Obituary for Freda Betti in Opera, Vol 31, p299, 1980. accessed 27 December 2014. where she obtained a Premier Prix de Chant in 1943. She made her debut at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 1947 as Siébel in Faust by Charles Gounod. She appeared frequently with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France of the RTF in the early 1950s, before entering the troupe of the Opéra-Comique in the 1960s. She sang the title role in particular of Carmen by Georges Bizet which she sang more than 150 times, and her repertoire also included Fricka, Brangaene, Dulcinée in Don Quichotte and Suzuki.
Betti sang on major national stages (Nantes, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse) and European (Monte-Carlo, La Scala), as well as in numerous opera festivals, including Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Bayreuth.
Betti recorded for Philips Records and EMI Records. Among published recordings she took part in were The Snow Maiden (Bobilicka), Listing of 1955 radio recording of The Snow Maiden conducted by Charles Bruck at the Operadiscography site accessed 27 December 2014. Démophon, Listing of 1957 studio recording of Démophon by Johann-Christoph Vogel conducted by Georges Tzipine accessed 27 December 2014 Tosca (shepherd boy) Listing of 1960 studio recording of Tosca conducted by Manuel Rosenthal at the Operadiscography site accessed 27 December 2014. and Philippine (Isabelle). L'encyclopédie multimedia de la comédie musicale théâtrale en France (1918-1944), Delannoy's Philippine accessed 27 December 2014. In 1958 she recorded excerpts from Carmen with Ken Neate, Gabriel Bacquier and Andréa Guiot on Philips P 77118 L.
She also participated in the original production of L'Opéra d'Aran by Gilbert Bécaud, in 1962, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Freda Betti page at the Association de l'Art Lyrique Français website accessed 13 July 2015. Betti sang the title role of La Périchole on French Culture radio in 1964.L'Avant-Scène Opéra, La Périchole - No 66, August 1984, p114.
In the 1970s she was a vocal teacher at the Conservatory of Monaco.
Freda Betti died at her home in Nice in 1979, at the age of 55, and is buried in the family vault "Famille Betti" with her husband and his parents in the Cimetière du Château ("Carré de l'O.N.U").
Freda Betti was the sister of Henri Betti and the great grandaunt of Alexy Bosetti but she has no family relationship with Laura Betti and Priscilla Betti.
In 2018, Benoît Duteurtre hosts the radio show Étonnez-moi Benoît devoted to the career of his brother Henri Betti with the participation of his nephew and grand-nephew : François and Olivier Betti. During this radio show which is broadcast on France Musique on April 28, the host passes a sample of the opera-bouffe Le Jour et la Nuit composed in 1881 by Charles Lecocq with lyrics of Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo that Freda Betti had played in 1956 as Sanchette.
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