Margaret Haggart

Last updated
Margaret Haggart in Australia House, London after a performance of the Silent Anzac on Remembrance Day 2018 MargaretHaggart AustraliaHouse.jpg
Margaret Haggart in Australia House, London after a performance of the Silent Anzac on Remembrance Day 2018

Margaret Haggart OAM is an Australian operatic soprano and community arts founder based in Melbourne, Australia. [1] Her career spans over 90 operatic, operetta and cabaret roles, performed in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, the United States of America, South America, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. [2] [1] [3] She is a board member of Melbourne Opera, Green Room Awards and a committee member for the now finished Mietta Song Competition. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

In June 2023 she was awarded an Order of Australia for services to the performing arts. [7]

Early life

Haggart grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, her father a Scottish coal miner migrated to Australia and met her mother of English heritage when they were working at a zip factory in Deer Park. [3] Haggart attended North Footscray Primary School and Footscray Girls High School. In her teenage years, she participated in choir and light opera opportunities in her local community. She studied voice with Antonio Moretti-Pananti. [1]

Haggart performed regularly with the Williamstown Light Opera, Hawthorn Light Opera, and was a founding member of the Victoria State Opera. [3]

International career

In 1972, Haggart moved to the United Kingdom where she regularly performed with the English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Scottish Opera. She was particularly known for singing Mozart's Königin der Nacht from the opera Die Zauberflöte . [1]

She sang for the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in 1976. [8] In France she sang with the Opéra national de Lorraine (formerly known as Opéra de Nancy) and Chorégies d'Orange. [9]

Association with Gian Carlo Menotti

Haggart was invited by Gian Carlo Menotti to perform in his Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in 1986. This included the recorded-to-video performance of Menotti's La santa di Bleecker Street for the festival. She then travelled to the US and performed in the same production for the 10th U.S. Spoleto Festival. [10] [11] [12] Menotti founded the Spoleto Festival Melbourne, where she was invited to perform in its opening season. [1]

Discography

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<i>Hansel and Gretel</i> (opera) Engelbert Humperdinck opera

Hansel and Gretel is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who described it as a Märchenoper. The libretto was written by Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale of the same name. It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the "Abendsegen" from act 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Festival dei Due Mondi</span>

The Festival dei Due Mondi(Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of concerts, opera, dance, drama, visual arts and roundtable discussions on science.

(Frank) Neely Bruce is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and scholar of American music. He is the composer of over 800 works including three full-length operas. Currently, he is John Spencer Camp Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University, where he has taught since 1974.

Bel Cantanti is an American opera company under the direction of Dr. Katerina Souvorova. It was formed in 2003 to give performance opportunities to operatic talent in the Washington, D.C. area. It has produced more than 50 different fully staged operas and gala events with young professionals since 2003. The productions has been in a variety of venues including: the Austrian Embassy in D.C., the French Embassy in Georgetown, and the German Embassy in D.C.. Bel Cantanti performed at the Randolph Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland, located in a Montgomery County, Maryland community center, until the County closed the center in favor of an affordable housing project. Most performances are now held at the Bender Jewish Community Center in Rockville, Maryland.

Francis "Chip" Menotti is an actor and former figure skater who was the president and artistic director of Festival dei Due Mondi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Keene</span> American conductor and impresario

Christopher Keene was an American conductor.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburgh Festival Opera</span>

Pittsburgh Festival Opera (PFO), formerly Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, is a professional American opera company based in Pittsburgh's university and museum district. Pittsburgh Festival Opera performs at non-traditional venues around the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz</span> Norwegian-Italian operatic soprano

Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz is a Norwegian-Italian operatic soprano.

<i>The Last Savage</i> Opera buffa in three acts by Gian Carlo Menotti

The Last Savage is an opera in three acts by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Menotti wrote his own libretto, originally in the Italian language. The opera was translated into French by Jean-Pierre Marty for the work's first (private) performance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 21 October 1963, followed the next day by the public premiere. George Mead translated the work into English for the opera's American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera the following year.

Christiane Kohl is a German soprano in opera and concert.

The Australian Contemporary Opera Company (ACOCo) is a not-for-profit contemporary opera company, based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was formerly known as "Gertrude Opera".

Ruth Welting was an American operatic soprano who had an active international career from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. A specialist in the coloratura soprano repertoire, she was particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera where she performed regularly from 1976 until her retirement from performance in 1994. Endowed with a powerful coloratura voice, she is remembered as one of a few sopranos capable of singing the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor in the original F major key.

Christine Imogen Rice is an English operatic mezzo-soprano. She has performed across Europe at venues including the Royal Opera House, the Bavarian State Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, the Teatro Real and the English National Opera. From 2004 to 2006 she was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.

Gloria Lane Krachmalnick was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international performance career from 1949 to 1976. In her early career she distinguished herself by creating roles in the world premieres of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti, the Secretary of the Consulate in The Consul (1950) and Desideria in The Saint of Bleecker Street (1954); both roles which she performed in successful runs on Broadway and on international tours. For her performance in The Consul she was awarded a Clarence Derwent Award and two Donaldson Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gian Carlo Menotti</span> Italian-American composer and librettist (1911–2007)

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. One of the most frequently performed opera composers of the 20th century, his most successful works were written in the 1940s and 1950s. Highly influenced by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, Menotti further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era. Rejecting atonality and the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School, Menotti's music is characterized by expressive lyricism which carefully sets language to natural rhythms in ways that highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent.

"Hansel and Gretel" is a 1963 Australian TV adaptation of the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Emily Pogorelc is an American operatic soprano. She is a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and has performed leading roles internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soraya Mafi</span> British operatic soprano

Soraya Mafi is an operatic soprano and recording artist who has sung leading roles in the opera houses and concert halls of Europe and North America. Mafi's performances have been broadcast live on radio, television, and in cinema. She has performed at international festivals and sports events and was nominated for Young Singer of the Year at the International Opera Awards in 2019. She is an inaugural Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music.

<i>Hansel and Gretel</i> (1987 film) 1987 film

Hansel and Gretel is a 1987 American Israeli fantasy musical film, part of the 1980s film series Cannon Movie Tales. It is directed by Len Talan and stars David Warner, Cloris Leachman, Hugh Pollard and Nicola Stapleton. It is a contemporary version of the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel of the Brothers Grimm. Like the other Cannon Movie Tales, the film was filmed entirely in Israel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Living Museum of the West – hear our voices". www.livingmuseum.org.au. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  2. "Meet the soloists: Margaret Haggart – MonUCS" . Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  3. 1 2 3 "Maggie Haggart Interview". operafolks.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  4. "About". Melbourne Opera. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  5. "Opera – The Green Room Awards" . Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  6. "Committee | Mietta Song Competition – an Australian Classical Singing Competition". www.miettafoundation.com.au. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  7. jimjin (2023-06-12). "King's Birthday honours for service and dedication". Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
  8. "BBC Proms". BBC Music Events. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  9. "Winfried Maczewski und seine Frau Sophie verstorben". Städtischer Musikverein zu Düsseldorf (in German). 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  10. "Omaggio a Gian Carlo Menotti". RAI Press Office. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  11. Page, Tim (1986-05-25). "Opera: U.S. Spoleto Festival Opens". The New York Times . Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  12. "Spoleto Festival USA" (PDF). Program History 2018–1977: 1–157.[ page range too broad ]
  13. Michael Easton, Brett Kelly, State Orchestra Of Victoria Victoria State Orchestra Bernadette Conlon, Len Vorster, Margaret Haggart – Concerto on Australian Themes, An Australian in Paris , retrieved 2023-04-05
  14. Margaret Haggart at Discogs
  15. The Turn of the Screw: Britten (TV Movie 1991) at IMDb   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  16. Hansel and Gretel (TV Movie 1992) at IMDb   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  17. La santa di Bleecker Street (TV Movie 1986) at IMDb   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  18. The Barber of Seville (TV Movie 1984) at IMDb   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg