Maria Teresa de Noronha

D. Maria Teresa do Carmo de Noronha, (November 7, 1918, Lisbon – July 4, 1993) was a Portuguese aristocrat and a fado singer. As a granddaughter of the Counts of Paraty and Belmonte, she belonged to a family of the most ancient Nobility in the Iberian Peninsula, tracing her roots to the Royal Houses of both Portugal and Castile from the mid-14th century. Her artistic career spanned over 30 years and hers is considered one of the most unusual and beautiful fado voices. Her status as a fidalga meant, in the context of a conservative early 20th century Portugal, that she faced severe restrictions in having a professional artistic career As such, she did not enjoy the projection of other great fadistas of her time.

Childhood and youth

According to her surviving relatives, Maria Teresa de Noronha showed from her childhood a very beautiful voice, often singing in church choirs, though she did not take any voice lessons. According to Raul Nery, her voice is one of those rare examples of natural vocal placement based on the diaphragm and taking advantage of the resonance provided by the skull – which may have arisen from her early contact with liturgical musical repertoire, then still very operatic in nature.

Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (born María Teresa Mestre y Batista; on 22 March 1956), is the spouse of Grand Duke Henri.

Early life and education

Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, was born in Marianao, Havana, Cuba, to José Antonio Mestre y Álvarez (Vedado, Havana, 1926 -) and wife (m. Vedado, Havana, 1951) María Teresa Batista y Falla de Mestre (Vedado, Havana, 1928–1988), both from bourgeois families of Spanish descent.

The Mestre family (descended in the female line from Ferdinand I of León and Castile) have as their patriarch Arnau Mestre, born Landorthe, who married in 1625 in San Pedro de Ribas. One of his descendants, Francisco Mestre y Roig Benaprés (born in 1787 in Sitges) travelled to Cuba in 1830 where he married Josefa Dominguez y Morales (born in 1764, daughter of Andres Domínguez Bencomo and Manuela Morales Ponce de León), being the founder of the Mestre family in Cuba. The Grand Duchess also descends through her father from the Spanish Espinosa de los Monteros noble family.