Janet Coster is an English operatic mezzo-soprano.
Born in London, the daughter of a London Transport employee, Coster studied at the Guildhall School of Music and privately with Eva Turner. In the 1960s she undertook a number of roles at Covent Garden including the boy in the 1966 production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov with Boris Christoff in the title role.
Dame Eva Turner, was an English dramatic soprano with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles.
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five". He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.
In 1969 Coster joined the roster of principal artists at the Cologne Opera, making her debut there as Vitellia in a new production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito . At that time this particular Mozart opera was rarely performed and the production, directed by Jean Pierre Ponnelle, received high acclaim from music critics internationally.
La clemenza di Tito, K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. It was started after the bulk of Die Zauberflöte, the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written. The work premiered on 6 September 1791 at the Estates Theatre in Prague.
In 1975 she sang a brilliant Eboli in the Cologne Opera's production of Verdi's "Don Carlos".
She also sang with Welsh National Opera to great acclaim in roles such as Azucena in Trovatore.
Over the next decade she sang a wide number of roles at this theatre and other German houses. Returning to Britain she was Amneris in Aida for the English National Opera and undertook a considerable amount of Broadcasting for the BBC.
Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, Aida has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera.
English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. ENO's productions are sung in English.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.
Her sister Tammy St. John had some success as a popular singer.
Coster has participated in a number of important recordings, including Léonard in Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer with a cast including Dame Joan Sutherland, Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Martina Arroyo and Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea with Montserrat Caballé.
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, it premiered in Paris in 1836.
Martina Arroyo is an American operatic soprano who had a major international opera career from the 1960s through the 1980s. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers of Puerto Rican descent to achieve wide success, and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world.
Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. It was first performed on 6 November 1902 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan.
Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa is a New Zealand soprano. She has a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced".
Dame Janet Abbott Baker is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.
Renée Lynn Fleming is an American opera singer and soprano. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice. She has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She has also sung chansons, jazz and indie rock. She speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Countess in Capriccio.
María de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i FolchOIC OAXS OMFRG LH OMIR was a Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite pianissimo.
Cecilia Bartoli, Cavaliere OMRI is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best known for her interpretations of the music of Bellini, Mozart and Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and Classical music. She is known for having the versatility to sing soprano and mezzo roles.
Dame Anne Elizabeth Jane Evans, is an international British operatic soprano.
Natalie Dessay is a French singer and actress who had a highly acclaimed career as an operatic coloratura soprano before leaving the opera stage on 15 October 2013.
Andrea Rost is a Hungarian lyric soprano. She has performed in leading roles with the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera and the Salzburg Festival. The year 1997 saw the release of her first solo recording, Le delizie dell’amor, featuring arias from bel canto, Verdi and Puccini operas.
Jane Berbié is a French mezzo-soprano particularly associated with Mozart and Rossini roles.
Susan Elizabeth Futral is an American coloratura soprano who has won acclaim throughout the United States as well as in Europe, South America, and Japan.
Sara Magdalena "Malena" Ernman is a Swedish opera singer. Outside the world of opera and operettas, she has also performed chansons, cabaret, jazz, and appeared in musicals, and she has declared that she is very much attracted to the attributes of variété theatre and small, intimate stage rooms. She is a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Ernman represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia.
John Alexander was an American operatic tenor who had a substantial career during the 1950s through the 1980s. He had a longstanding relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing with that company every year between 1961 and 1987 for a total of 379 performances. He also periodically performed at the New York City Opera during his career and was a frequent presence at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company during the late 1950s and 1960s. Although he spent most of his career in New York City, Alexander occasionally traveled to perform as a guest artist with many of the world's leading opera houses, both in the United States and Europe. He was also an active concert singer throughout his career.
Dame Sarah Patricia Connolly is an English mezzo-soprano. Although best known for her baroque and classical roles, Connolly has a wide-ranging repertoire which has included works by Wagner as well as various 20th-century composers. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to music.
Gerald Hunter Finley, is a Canadian baritone opera singer.
Joyce DiDonato is an American operatic lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano notable for her interpretations of the works of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini.
Alexandrina Pendatchanska is a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Increasingly, she is known professionally as Alex Penda.
Lois Jeanette McDonall is a Canadian operatic soprano, especially known for her performances in the operas of Mozart and Donizetti.
Joan Carden AO OBE is an Australian operatic soprano. She has been described as "a worthy successor to Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland" and was sometimes known as "the other Joan" or "The People's Diva". She was a Principal Soprano with Opera Australia for 32 years, and was particularly associated with the title roles of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and Madama Butterfly. However, she sang over 50 other roles, from the 18th century, including virtually all the Mozart heroines, through to works by contemporary composers.
Konstantinos Paliatsaras is a Greek operatic tenor.
Liselotte Hammes is a German operatic soprano and academic voice teacher. Based at the Cologne Opera, she performed internationally. One of her signature roles is Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, which she performed at the Glyndebourne Festival, among other European opera houses.
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