 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(September 2021) |
Reri Grist (born February 29, 1932) [1] is an American coloratura soprano, one of the pioneer African-American singers to enjoy a major international career in opera.
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(October 2022) |
Reri Grist was born in New York City, grew up in the East River Housing Projects, attended the High School of Music & Art, majored in voice, and graduated with a BA in music from Queens College, City University of New York.
In her early teens she performed on Broadway in small roles with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, including Robert Ardrey's 1946 play Jeb ; and in musicals with Eartha Kitt while taking voice lessons with her teacher, Claire Gelda. Her first opera engagement was as Madame Herz in a concert performance of Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor . Her first staged "operatic" engagement was in 1956 as Cindy Lou (Micaela) in Carmen Jones , Oscar Hammerstein's adaptation of Bizet's Carmen .
She was Consuelo in the original production of Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story in 1957, introducing the song "Somewhere" to the public; she also sang it on the original cast album. One of her earliest breakthroughs in classical music came in 1960 when Bernstein engaged her to sing the soprano part in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major with the New York Philharmonic in a Young People's Concert at Carnegie Hall. [2]
In following years, Grist appeared with the orchestra under the batons of Bernstein, Nadia Boulanger, Pierre Boulez, and Michael Gielen. Her operatic debut was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1959, as Adele in Die Fledermaus , followed by Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail . Igor Stravinsky attended the performance and invited her to perform his Le Rossignol with him conducting at the Washington Opera Society.
Her first European appearance was at the Cologne Opera in 1960 as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute . From 1960–1966 she was a member of the Zurich Opera, where she first performed Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos , Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier , Adina in L'elisir d'amore , and Gilda in Rigoletto . After her successes in Zurich, she found herself much in demand, leading to her debuts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in Le Coq d'Or and at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1962, followed by the Vienna State Opera in 1963, where she performed for twenty-five seasons.
In the same year, Grist first sang at the San Francisco Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia . Throughout twelve consecutive seasons there, she added to her repertoire Oscar in Un ballo in maschera , Manon in Massenet's Manon and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro .
In 1964, she made an acclaimed debut as Zerbinetta at the Salzburg Festival, where she performed throughout twelve seasons in Mozart and R. Strauss operas conducted by Karl Böhm, Zubin Mehta and Herbert von Karajan.
Grist's Metropolitan Opera debut on February 25, 1966, was as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Additional roles throughout thirteen seasons included Gilda, Oscar, Olympia, Sophie and Zerbinetta.
From 1965 to 1987, she performed regularly at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich in new productions, among which were Richard Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau , Falstaff , Le Nozze di Figaro, and Il barbiere di Siviglia. Guest appearances included performances at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala Milano, Buenos Aires, Holland Festival, and Die Wiener Festwochen.
Grist ended her operatic career in 1991 at De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, in the one-woman opera, Neither by Morton Feldman/Samuel Beckett, directed by Pierre Audi. In that year, she also sang the role of "the Italian Singer" in the San Francisco Opera production of Cappriccio.
Grist has held professorships in voice at the School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich.
Honors include the title of Bayerische Kammersängerin awarded to her in 1976 and a Legacy Award of the American Opera Association in 2001.
Grist lives in Germany with her husband, orchestra administrator Dr. Ulf Thomson.
The German Fach system is a method of classifying singers, primarily opera singers, according to the range, weight, and color of their voices. It is used worldwide, but primarily in Europe, especially in German-speaking countries and by repertory opera houses.
A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs, leaps and trills.
Graziella Sciutti was an Italian soprano opera singer and later vocal teacher and opera producer.
Malin Hartelius is a Swedish soprano who performs regularly with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ton Koopman, Riccardo Chailly, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Peter Schreier, Herbert Blomstedt, and Frans Brüggen. She has collaborated with orchestras like the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Concentus Musicus Wien.
Diana Damrau is a German soprano who achieved international fame for her performances, primarily in opera, but also in concert and lieder. She has been successful in coloratura soprano roles since her early career, and gradually proceeded into heavier roles of the 19th-century Italian bel canto repertoire. Her signature roles include the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Violetta in La traviata.
Mariella Devia is an Italian operatic soprano. After beginning her career as a lyric coloratura soprano, in the finale part of it she also enjoyed considerable success with some of the most dramatic roles in the bel canto repertoire.
Eugenia Ratti was an Italian soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. A lyric coloratura soprano of considerable charm, she excelled in soubrette roles in works by Cimarosa and Mozart such as Susanna, Zerlina, Despina, and in light Donizetti such as Adina, Norina, as well as Verdi's Oscar and Nannetta.
Gail Robinson was an American operatic soprano who sang with many of the world's leading opera companies during the 1970s and 1980s. She spent most of her career singing lyric coloratura roles at the Metropolitan Opera. After her performance career ended she taught singing to young artists and also directed the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist Program for over ten years. Upon leaving the Met, she joined the voice faculty at the University of Kentucky.
Hjördis Gunborg Schymberg was a Swedish coloratura and lyric soprano active on the opera stage and in concert halls between 1934 and 1968. One of the leading singers of the Royal Swedish Opera, she was awarded the title of Hovsångerska in 1943, and in her later years became a distinguished voice teacher.
Simona Houda-Šaturová is a Slovak classical soprano who has had an active international career performing in operas, concerts, and recitals since the early 1990s. In 2001, she was honored with a Thalia Award and in 2007 she won the Charlotte and Walter Hamel Award for outstanding vocal achievement. She has worked at many of the world's best opera houses and concert stages, singing under such conductors as Rolf Beck, Jiří Bělohlávek, Sylvain Cambreling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christoph Eschenbach, John Fiore, Ádám Fischer, Christopher Hogwood, Manfred Honeck, Sir Neville Marriner, Tomáš Netopil, and Helmuth Rilling among others.
Irene Abendroth, born as Irene Thaller von Draga was an Austrian-Polish coloratura soprano singer. She was a pupil of Frau Wilczek. She was a member of the Vienna court opera in 1889, and she sang in Riga and Munich, and again in Vienna (1894-99). She was engaged from 1899 to 1908 at the Royal Opera in Dresden.
Birgit Nordin was a Swedish operatic soprano. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Opera from 1958 to 1986, and regularly appeared at the Drottningholm Festival where she performed twelve major Mozart roles, including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in The Magic Flute. She also performed internationally, appearing in the Edinburgh International Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Copenhagen and others. She became known as the Queen of the Night in Trollflöjten, Ingmar Bergman's film adaptation of Mozart's opera.
Janet Williams is an American soprano who has won international critical acclaim for performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Paris Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opera de Lyon, Nice Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Opera Geneva, Frankfurt Opera, Cologne Opera, Leipzig Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Dallas Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre as well as in concerts throughout Europe, North America, Canada, Israel and Japan with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Myung-whun Chung, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Raymond Leppard, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Marriner, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, John Nelson, Donald Runnicles, Gerard Schwarz and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Kathleen Kim is an American operatic coloratura soprano. Her repertoire includes roles in operas by Handel, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, and Offenbach, among others, as well as in oratorios such as the Messiah and sacred works such as Mozart's Great Mass in C minor.
Heather Engebretson is a Chinese-American operatic soprano who made a career mostly in Europe. Based at German opera ensembles for several years, she has worked freelance from 2017, and widened her repertoire from coloratura roles to leading characters such as Puccini's Madama Butterfly. She has been praised for her convincing acting as well as the expressiveness of her lyric voice, with performances including the Royal Opera House in London, the Bolshoi Theatre and Oper Frankfurt.
Svetlina Stoyanova is a Bulgarian operatic mezzo-soprano.
Rosl Schwaiger was an Austrian operatic coloratura soprano. She was a member of the Vienna State Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper, known for singing Mozart roles such as Blonde, Susanna and Zerlina. She appeared at European opera houses and festivals and was especially popular at the Salzburg Festival, where she appeared for decades in opera and sacred concerts.
Sylvia Geszty was a Hungarian-German operatic coloratura soprano who appeared internationally, based first at the Staatsoper Berlin in East Berlin and from 1970 at the Staatstheater Stuttgart. She is remembered as Mozart's Queen of the Night and an ideal Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, but also performed Baroque opera and in the world premiere of Kurt Schwaen's Leonce und Lena.
Elżbieta Szmytka is a Polish operatic soprano. She has appeared internationally, including at the Vienna State Opera, where she performed Mozart roles such as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Despina in Così fan tutte. In 1999, she recorded Chopin's Polish songs and performed in a concert in 2018 celebrating a century of Polish independence as a soloist in Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.
Fritzi Jokl was an Austro-American operatic dramatic coloratura soprano.
Notes
Sources
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
