Diane Curry (born February 26, 1938) is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who is particularly known for her performances of the works of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, and Giuseppe Verdi. She was notably the mezzo-soprano soloist on the 1987 recording of Verdi's Requiem by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and conductor Robert Shaw which won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
The daughter of Frances and Ashton Curry, Curry studied vocal music at Westminster Choir College where she graduated with a B.M. in Music (1960) and a M.M. in Music (1961). She spent the next decade teaching on the voice faculties at Westminster and at the University of Delaware before joining the roster of artists at the New York City Opera where she performed regularly from 1972 to 1981. Roles she performed with the NYCO included Annina in Der Rosenkavalier , [1] Berta in The Barber of Seville , Emma Jones in Street Scene , Enrichetta in I puritani , [2] Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , [3] Mama Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana , [4] Mary in The Flying Dutchman , Neris in Médée , [5] Olga in Eugene Onegin , [6] the Second Lady in The Magic Flute , [7] Suzuki in Madama Butterfly , [8] and the title role in Carmen [9] among others.
In 1976 Curry created the role of Mildred in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Hero at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. [10] She subsequently returned to Philadelphia regularly through 1995, portraying Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande , Herodias in Salome , La Frugala in Il Tabarro , Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff , the Princess in Suor Angelica , and Zita in Gianni Schicchi .
In 1979 Curry made her debuts at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis as The Voice in Ottorino Respighi's Lucrezia [11] and as Madelon in Andrea Chénier at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. [12] She subsequently returned to Chicago in the roles of Federica in Luisa Miller (1982), Katisha in The Mikado (1983), and La Cieca in La Gioconda (1987). [13] From 1981 to 1986 she performed annually in Seattle Opera's first production of Wagner's The Ring Cycle under director Speight Jenkins, portraying Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre and Waltraute/Second Norn in Götterdämmerung . [14]
In 1989 Curry made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as The Nurse in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten under the baton of Christof Perick. She returned to the Met several more times in her career, portraying the Innkeeper in Boris Godunov (1998), the Mother in Lulu (2001), the Housemaid in War and Peace (2002), and the Aunt in Jenůfa (2003). [15] In 1990 she made her debut at the San Francisco Opera as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera . [16]
Curry has also performed in leading roles internationally, including performances at the Arena di Verona, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, La Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Paris Opera among others. In 1976 she made her debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi as Bianca in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia . [17] In 1982 she made her debut with the Canadian Opera Company as Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff . [18]
A contralto is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type.
Seattle Opera is an opera company based in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as its first general director until 1983. The company's season runs from August through late May, comprising five or six operas of eight to ten performances each, often featuring double casts in major roles to allow for successive evening presentations.
Anna Tomowa-Sintow is a Bulgarian soprano who has sung to great acclaim in all the major opera houses around the world in a repertoire that includes Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, and Strauss. She enjoyed a particularly close professional relationship with conductor Herbert von Karajan from 1973 until the conductor's death in 1989.
Soile Marja Isokoski is a Finnish lyric soprano. She is an opera singer as well as a concert and lieder singer.
Éva Marton is a Hungarian dramatic soprano, particularly known for her operatic portrayals of Puccini's Turandot and Tosca, and Wagnerian roles.
Beverly Wolff was an American mezzo-soprano who had an active career in concerts and operas from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. She performed a broad repertoire which encompassed operatic and concert works in many languages and from a variety of musical periods. She was a champion of new works, notably premiering compositions by Leonard Bernstein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Douglas Moore, and Ned Rorem among other American composers. She also performed in a number of rarely heard baroque operas by George Frideric Handel with the New York City Opera (NYCO), the Handel Society of New York, and at the Kennedy Center Handel Festivals.
Brenda Boozer is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international career performing in operas and concerts since the mid 1970s. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 11 seasons.
Jean Kraft is an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She began her career singing with the New York City Opera (NYCO) during the early 1960s, after which she embarked on a long and fruitful partnership with The Santa Fe Opera which lasted from 1965 through 1987. In 1970 she joined the roster of singers at the Metropolitan Opera where she remained a fixture until 1989. She has also performed as a guest artist with many other opera companies throughout the United States during her career. In 2005 Opera News stated that Kraft was "a gifted mezzo and observant, imaginative actress who lent distinction to a wide range of character roles. By the end of her Met tenure, she had sung nearly 800 performances and become a solid audience favorite."
Eunice Alberts (1927–2012) was an American contralto who had an active career as a concert soloist and opera singer during the 1950s through the 1980s.
Lee Venora is an American operatic soprano and musical theater actress. She was highly active with the New York City Opera between 1957 and 1967 and a regular performer at the San Francisco Opera between 1961 and 1966. She also appeared in a few Broadway musicals, Lincoln Center revivals, and national tours of musicals during her career. Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein was an admirer of her voice, and she performed with him and the New York Philharmonic on a number of occasions during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also sang with the orchestra on a couple of recordings and appears on a few musical recordings as well.
Kay Griffel is an American operatic spinto soprano.
Wendy White is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international singing career in operas and concerts since the late 1970s. She has performed annually with the Metropolitan Opera since her debut with the company in 1989, and as of April 2011 has appeared in a total of 499 performances at the Met.
Douglas Ahlstedt is an American operatic tenor who had an international performance career with major opera houses from the 1970s through the 1990s. He currently teaches on the voice faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.
Geraldine Decker was an American mezzo-soprano and voice teacher who had active singing career in operas and concerts from 1971 through 2010. She was particularly active with the Metropolitan Opera and the Seattle Opera, and is best remembered for her annual performances in Seattle of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle from 1974-1987. She taught on the voice faculty of Pepperdine University.
Kathryn Day is an American opera singer who has had an active international career spanning five decades. She began her career as a leading soprano under the name Kathryn Bouleyn in the 1970s and 1980s with companies like the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. With the latter institution she created the role of Cora in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice (1982).
Delores Ziegler is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international performance career since the late 1970s. A former resident artist at the Cologne Opera, she has performed leading roles with many of the world's best opera houses, including La Scala, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. She is currently a professor of voice at the University of Maryland. While she has performed a broad repertoire, she is widely admired for her performances in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss; particularly Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Idamante in Idomeneo, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.
Andrea Velis was an American operatic tenor who had a lengthy association with the Metropolitan Opera that spanned 33 seasons. Considered a highly skilled character actor, he excelled in supporting roles, often to great comedic effect. His voice is preserved on several recordings made for Live from the Metropolitan Opera and the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.
Tamara Wilson is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international opera career since 2007. She has performed leading roles at the Canadian Opera Company, the English National Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Liceu, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Sydney Opera House among others. She is particularly known for her performances of heroines in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. In 2016 she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and was awarded the Richard Tucker Award, an award described by Opera News as "one of the most prestigious prizes in opera".
Elisabeth Glauser is a Swiss operatic mezzo-soprano and an academic teacher of voice. She was engaged at opera houses in Germany and has appeared at international festivals including the Bayreuth Festival and the Glyndebourne Festival. She has focused on roles by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, and has created roles in contemporary opera, such as Babette in Henze's Die englische Katze.
Dina Kuznetsova is an American lyric dramatic operatic soprano of Russian descent who has appeared in leading roles on the stages of international opera houses from New York to Sydney. She has focused on Italian and Slavic repertoires. Her signature roles include Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly by Puccini, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, and Kátya in Kátya Kabanová by Janáček.
