Corinna Mura

Corinna Mura (born Corinna Wall; c. 1909 – 1 August 1965) was a cabaret singer and diseuse. She had a small role in the classic film Casablanca as the woman playing the guitar while singing "Tango Delle Rose" and "La Marseillaise" at Rick's Café Américain.

As a child she was trained by her parents to become a coloratura soprano. She sang three times for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1944, Mura appeared in Cole Porter's hit Broadway musical Mexican Hayride, and can be heard in two numbers on the Decca original-cast album. She was stepmother to author/illustrator Edward Gorey.

Death

She died in Mexico City in 1965 from cancer.

Filmography

References

Corinna

Corinna or Korinna (Greek: Κόριννα) was an Ancient Greek poet, traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC. According to ancient sources such as Plutarch and Pausanias, she came from Tanagra in Boeotia, where she was a teacher and rival to the better-known Theban poet Pindar. Although two of her poems survive in epitome, most of her work is preserved in papyrus fragments.

Traditional biography

It is suspected that Corinna was born in the month of May. If Pindar was indeed her pupil, it may be assumed that she was born some years earlier than his birthdate of 522 BC. Some writers, however, place her in the 5th or 4th century BC. Pausanias says she won a poetry competition against Pindar in honour of which she had a monument erected to her. According to his opinion, her success was probably chiefly due to her beauty and her use of the local Boeotian dialect, as opposed to the Doric of Pindar's poems. Aelian said she defeated Pindar five times, and in response to these defeats, Pindar called her a sow. Antipater of Thessalonica lists her in his catalogue of nine mortal muses.

Amores (Ovid)

Amores is Ovid's first completed book of poetry, written in elegiac couplets. It was first published in 16 BC in 5 books, but Ovid by his own account later edited it down into the 3-book edition that has come down to us. The book follows the popular model of the erotic elegy, as made famous by figures such as Tibullus or Propertius, but is often subversive and humorous with these tropes, exaggerating common motifs and devices to the point of absurdity.

History

Speculations as to Corinna's real identity are many, if indeed she lived at all. It has been argued that she is a poetic construct copying the puella-archetype from other works in the love elegy genre. The name Corinna may have been a typically Ovidian pun based on the Greek word for "maiden", "kore".

Though most of this book is rather tongue-in-cheek, some people didn't take it that way and this could be the reason or part of the reason why Ovid was banished from Rome. However, his banishment probably has more to do with the Ars Amatoria, written later, which offended Augustus. There is also a connection between Ovid and Augustus' daughter, Julia, who was also exiled.

Corina

Corina is female given name of Greek origin (Κόριννα), which was derived from κόρη (kore) "maiden". Variants include Korinna, Corinna, Kora, Corri, Corinne, and Coreen. Notable people with the name include: