Esther Borja

Who was Esther Borja?

Esther Borja Lima was a Cuban soprano.

Havana-born Esther Borja Lima was trained in solfége and music theory by Juan Elósegui, and in singing by Rubén Lepchutz. She graduated as a teacher in 1934, and began her career in 1935; that year she performed, with Ernesto Lecuona on piano, at the National Theatre, and at the Auditorium Amadeo Roldán. The same year she sang the waltz Damisela encantadora in the operetta Lola Cruz by Lecuona. Her voice was described as a "beautiful mezzo-soprano with clear diction and a good feel for melody".

At the time Borja started her career, and for years after, Rita Montaner was the leading stage musical star in Cuba. However, Montaner gradually shifted her career from operatic-style singing towards Afro-Cuban character roles and films, and then began some remarkable radio shows with biting humour and political satire. Borja, on the other hand, remained primarily a singer, and later took over some of the soprano parts that Montaner had previously dominated.

Borja made her first overseas tour to Argentina in 1936 with Lecuona, his sister Ernestina, and Bola de Nieve. The quartet made a film, Adiós, Buenos Aires, in 1937, and Esther stayed there until 1943. From her new base in the Argentine, Borja sang and performed zarzuelas by Lecuona and other composers, and toured Chile, Peru, Brazil and Uruguay. In 1943 she returned to Cuba to work in concerts organized by Eliseo Grenet, and left again to go to New York. There she appeared with Lecuona in the Steinway Hall until Sigmund Romberg put her under contract to appear with his orchestra at the Carnegie Hall.