Born Renée Dumazert, in Perpignan in 1921, Renée Doria studied in Marseilles before making her concert début at the age of eighteen. Her dazzling coloratura soprano was first heard as Rosina in Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia in Marseilles in 1942. Her 1943 Paris début, as Delibes’ Lakmé, was followed in 1946 by her début in the same rôle at the Opéra-Comique. In 1947 she appeared at the Paris Opéra as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte.
