JOHN BRECKNOCK, Tenor * 29 November 1937, Long Eaton, Derbyshire, England, UK + 30 May 2017, Benissa, Alicante, Spain;

He trained at the Birmingham Music School with Frederic Sharp and Denis Dowling, and made his stage debut at Salder’s Wells Opera in 1967 as Alfred in “die Fledermaus”. Fenton was his first role at Covent Garden in 1974. Tamino at the Metropolitan opera and Don Ramiro in Paris in 1977. Almaviva in Vienna in 1978. His roles included Don Ottavio, Belmonte, Werther, the title character in “Le Comte Ory”, Berlioz’ Benedict, Romeo, Edgardo, the Duke, Alfred. and Anatolij in the English premiere of Prokofiev’s “‘War and Peace”.

For more information about Tenor John Brecknock, please vist at http://www.carelinetheatre.com/pastprods/johnbrecknock.php

 

PAULINE LUCCA, Soprano * 25 April 1841, Vienna, Austria + 28 February 1908, Zürich, Switzerland;

Pauline Lucca (April 25, 1841 – February 28, 1908) was a prominent operatic soprano, born in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

As a child she showed a remarkable talent for singing and at eight years old became a voice student of M. Walter. Not too long after her parents lost all their property, forcing her to abandon her studies. She continued her education as a young teenager with Otto Uschmann and Richard Lewy in Vienna, but was too poor to continue her studies and so joined the chorus of the Vienna State Opera in 1856.

In 1859, she made her début at Olmütz as Elvira in Ernani. She then sang for a while in Prague and in 1861, having attracted the attention of Meyerbeer, obtained an engagement at the Berlin State Opera, where her success was absolute for years. In 1863 Lucca made her first appearance in England, which country, as well as France and Russia, she subsequently visited often. Meyerbeer and Auber considered her unequaled, and the latter was so struck by her interpretation of the part of Zerlina in Fra Diavolo that he gave her the pen with which he had written the opera.

Lucca had a notorious rivalry with soprano Mathilde Mallinger while in Berlin. The conflict between the two extended among their fans as well, with supporters of Mallinger and supporters of Lucca heckling one another. The tension came to a climax on 27 January 1872 in a performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in which Mallinger sang the Countess and Lucca portrayed Cherubino. During the performance, supporters of Mallinger booed Lucca so severely that she was prevented from singing her aria. So upset by this event, Lucca broke her contract with the opera house and left the German capital to tour the United States for two years where she was received enthusiastically, especially in New York City. She spent the summer of 1872 in Kingston, Rhode Island. While in the United States she divorced the Prussian Baron Adolphe Von Rhaden, whom she had married in 1865. She married the Baron von Wallhoffen on 12 June 1873. From 1874 to 1889, she was a member of the Vienna State Opera. She died February 28, 1908.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

 

EDITH MASON, Soprano * 22 March 1892, St. Louis, Missouri, United States + 26 November 1973, San Diego, California, United States;

Edith Mason (March 22, 1892 – November 26, 1973) was an American soprano.

Biography
She was born Edith Barnes on March 22, 1892, in St. Louis, Missouri and studied in Boston, Philadelphia, and Paris. She made her singing début on January 27, 1912, as Nedda in Pagliacci with the Boston Opera Company. During the next three years, she sang in Europe at Nice, Marseilles, and Paris. In 1914 she was singing at the Opera Comique in Paris when the war terminated her engagement. Returning to America, she made her debut at the Metropolitan as Sophie in Der Rosen-Cavalier on November 20, 1915. From 1917 to 1919, she was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company.

In 1919, she married Giorgio Polacco. In 1921 she became one of the leading singers of the Chicago Opera Association. She divorced Polacco on July 21, 1929,[3] and was married to Dr. Maurice Bernstein, guardian of the young Orson Welles.

She remarried Polacco on May 15, 1931. They divorced in 1937.

She later married William E. Ragland.

She died of a stroke in San Diego, California on November 26, 1973 at age 80

Edith Mason and Mabel Garrison on November 11, 1915 at the Metropolitan Opera

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Photo courtesy: Bruce Duffie

 

ELISABETH WYSOR, Contralto * 14 May 1908, Easton, Pennsylvania + 06 October 2000, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania;

Elizabeth F. Wysor was born on May 14, 1908, in Easton, Pennsylvania. She was educated at Easton High School (1924–1927), the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1928–1929), the Juilliard School in New York (1929–1932), Staatliche Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich, Germany (1932–1933), and Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria (1948–1949). As a member of Easton’s First Congregational Church she was introduced to church music at an early age, and for a long period of her life she would perform in churches.

Since her Town Hall debut in New York in 1938, Elizabeth Wysor gave five concerts there and also appeared in Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestras. She sang leading contralto roles throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe (operas by Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), and also performed many times for the United States armed forces in hospitals, on USO tours, and for the Red Cross. She was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon National Music Honorary Sorority, the Society of American Musicians, the National Opera Association, Society of American Pen Women, and the Community Concerts Association Board of Evanston, Illinois. In 1953 Elizabeth Wysor became Faculty Advisor of Sigma chapter at Northwestern University of the National Music Sorority.

As professor of voice (1943–1953) at Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia she studied and taught Greek folk, Byzantine, and classical Greek music.

She recorded for Remington Records, Deutsche Grammophon, and Allegro Records.

On May 15, 1953 she was appointed assistant professor of voice at the School of Music at Northwestern University, where she taught mainly applied voice, phonetics and diction. In 1962 she traveled to Greece for research on the arts of ancient Greece, music in modern Greece, and folk and other contemporary Greek vocal literature and its ancient origins.

In 1973 Elizabeth Wysor retired from Northwestern University as professor emeritus. She died on October 6, 2000, in Kirkland Village, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she resided.

with Lawrence, Beecham, Huhen, Carron and Graf Montreal 1944

with Lawrence, Beecham, Huhen, Carron and Graf Montreal 1944

as Ortrud

as Dalila

Portrait

Portrait

Promo

Promo

 

 

MARY BOTHWELL, Contralto * 28 November 1900, Hickson, near Woodstock, Ontario + mid-1970s, Switzerland;

Mary Bothwell (November 28, 1900 – mid-1970s)[1] was a Canadian classical vocalist and painter. As a singer she began her career as a contralto, but ultimately ended up performing soprano parts in the opera and concert repertoire.

Born in Hickson near Woodstock, Ontario, Bothwell studied at the Canadian Academy of Music in Toronto where she was a voice student of Otto Morando and a piano student of Peter C. Kennedy. From 1920-1929 she performed as a contralto in opera and oratorio performances in Toronto and Buffalo, New York. In 1937 she went to Austria to study singing at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. The following year she moved to New York City where she was a pupil of Paul Althouse. She made her recital debut in that city at Town Hall on November 1, 1938 and continued to appear there until the early 1960s.

In 1947 she made her first European tour which included performances in Germany, the Netherlands, and England. That same year she was much admired at the Scheveningen Festival for her portrayal of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. She was also celebrated for her portrayal of Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, a role she notably performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Adrian Boult in 1948. She performed on radio in New York City, Paris, London, and Basel. Among her recordings for Royale are An Hour of Lieder:

Hugo Wolf Sung by Mary Bothwell (1310)
An Hour of Concert Songs (1318)
Bless This House (1538)
Richard Strauss Album (4069)
Bothwell was elected president of the Canadian Women’s Club of New York City at the annual meeting in the Savoy Hilton on May 12, 1958. During her term as president of the Canadian Women’s Club of New York she encouraged the careers of young Canadian performers.

Bothwell became known also for her paintings of flowers. “Wild Flowers of Switzerland”, 36 botanical studies in oil by Mary Bothwell was exhibited for the first time at the Horticultural Society of New York on April 18, 1971.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

 

JOSEF GREINDL, Bass * 23 December 1912, Munich, Germany + 16 April 1993, Vienna, Austria;

Josef Greindl (23 December 1912 – 16 April 1993) was a German operatic bass, remembered mainly for his performances of Wagnerian roles at Bayreuth beginning in 1943.

Josef Greindl was born in Munich and studied at the Munich Music Academy with Paul Bender. His opera debut was in 1936, as Hunding in Wagner’s Die Walküre in the State Theatre in Krefeld. He joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party, in 1939. In 1944, Adolf Hitler included him in the Gottbegnadeten list (“God-gifted List”), which exempted him from the requirement to serve in the German military. He played the part of King Marke in the 1952 Furtwängler recording of Tristan und Isolde. This vintage recording often appears in critics list of the top 100 greatest recordings, since Kirsten Flagstad was also in the cast. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera in 1952-3. He sang in Wieland Wagner’s last Ring.

In 1973, he became a professor at the Vienna Hochschule and later died in that city (in 1993). His daughter Gudrun Greindl Rosner is also a singer.

Greindl had a voice like a gravel quarry—massive, wide, deep, rough, and ancient-sounding, grey-timbred rather than black. From the mid-1940s through the late 1960s he was one of the three or four leading performers of Wagner’s and Mozart’s big bass roles, possessing the size and strength for the former and the dexterity, brains, and extreme range for the latter. He frequently appeared as Fafner, Hunding, and Hagen in the same performance of the Ring Cycle, which made him the only singer in the cast who had to perform all four nights. His earliest recorded singing was at Bayreuth, as Pogner the goldsmith, a character in his fifties or sixties, in 1943 when he (Greindl) was 31 years old. Although he was not as tall as some other big basses, his stage-presence was formidable.

He was not nearly as well-publicised as his frequent co-star Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, but Josef Greindl’s recorded repertoire is almost equally wide and full, including besides Mozart and Wagner beyond reckoning, operatic roles by Gluck, Verdi, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Smetana, Weber, Berg, Orff, Cimarosa, and Beethoven; lieder by Schubert, Schumann, and Carl Loewe; and sacred music by Bach, Handel, Heinrich Schütz, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Schubert, Dvorak, and Rossini.

Although he was famous for the low bass parts, his top was very comfortable and he began experimenting with higher-pitched roles in the 1960s: Hans Sachs (at which he excelled), the Wanderer in Siegfried, the title character in Der fliegende Holländer and even Don Alphonso in Così fan tutte.

He can be seen on video as Hans Sachs, Hagen (brief excerpts only), Rocco, King Phillip, Geronimo in Il matrimonio segreto, the Commendatore, and as Hunding in a concert performance of Act I of Die Walküre.

 

 

ERNST HAEFLIGER, Tenor * 06 July 1919, Davos, Switzerland + 17 March 2007, Davos, Switzerland;

Ernst Haefliger was one of the better known and more versatile tenors of his day. He was impressive both on the operatic stage and as a recitalist, and in each of these realms his repertory was broad, from Baroque era (J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion) to the contemporary (Boris Blacher’s Zwischenfälle bei einer Notlandung). Haefliger received high praise for his Schubert lieder, particularly for Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin. His 1949 Salzburg Festival debut as Tiresias in Orff’s Antigonae received critical acclaim. Haefliger was probably best known for his Mozart (Pamina, Ferrando, Don Ottavio, and others), and for his portrayals of the Evangelist in the Bach Passions. He was one of the first tenors to record Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in stereo (Bruno Walter, conducting; 1960). The tone of Haefliger’s voice, while appealing, was generally regarded as not particularly outstanding; yet, because of his precision in articulation and deft sense for phrasing, he achieved a vocal style quite unforgettable, quite distinct from other tenors of his generation. Though most of his recordings are decades old, many remain available on Philips (the largest source), Decca, Sony, DG, Naxos, Orfeo, Berlin Classics, Preiser Records, Testament, and other labels.

Ernst Haefliger was born in Davos, Switzerland, on July 6, 1919. He studied at the Zurich Conservatory and at the Geneva Conservatory, where his most important teacher was Fernando Capri; he later took vocal lessons in Vienna from iconic tenor Julius Patzak. Haefliger debuted in 1942 in Geneva singing the Evangelist in the St. John Passion. The following year he joined the Zurich Opera, remaining there until 1952.

From 1952-1974 he was a member of the Deutsche Oper, but frequently appeared at other major operatic venues and in recitals and orchestral concerts. Many important debuts took place during this 22-year run, including at Glyndebourne (1956) singing Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Chicago’s Lyric Opera (1966), in the same role, and Moscow (1968) as the Evangelist.

Haefliger remained active well past his 1972 retirement from the Deutsche Oper. In fact, he was singing Schubert’s Winterreise in recital as late as 1995 (London’s Wigmore Hall), when he was 76! Even after he finally retired from singing, Haefliger made concert appearances in speaking roles, as in the 2002 performance of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the Proms (in London), where he was narrator. Haefliger died in Davos on March 17, 2007.

Biography by Robert Cummings

Photo courtesy: All Music

 

KIM BORG, Bass-Baritone * 07 August 1919, Helsinki, Finland + 28 April 2000, Fredensborg Municipality, Denmark

The Finnish bass-baritone Kim Borg, who has died aged 80, was a well- regarded singer in opera and song from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, with a wide repertory but a natural preference for the music of Scandinavia and Russia. He was a specialist in the songs of his fellow Finns Sibelius and Kilpinen, many of which he recorded. He appeared in many opera roles internationally, his gifts as an actor much to the fore.
Britain saw him on stage all too seldom. He appeared at Glyndebourne in 1956 as an imposing, if slightly too rough-hewn, Don Giovanni. He returned to the festival as, more appropriately, Don Pizarro, in Fidelio in 1959.

At about this time, Sir John Barbirolli took a liking to Borg’s voice, and afterwards frequently asked him to sing the roles of the Priest and the Angel of the Agony in The Dream Of Gerontius. When Barbirolli recorded the work in 1964, a version some consider the best of all, Borg was chosen for those bass-baritone roles. His self-evident sincerity of interpretation overcame the drawback of rather a thick accent.

He appeared for the first time in recital in London in 1959, when his interpretations, and wholehearted powers of expression, were greatly admired. This was also the year of his debut as Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, where he appeared for the following three seasons.

Borg was born into a musical family in Helsinki, and was first taught at home by his mother; she told him to sing from the chest, not the throat. Notwithstanding this support, he chose to study chemistry rather than music.

With the war between Finland and the Soviet Union breaking out in 1939, he was recruited to the Finnish army and served as a photographer in his platoon (photography then being his hobby). In 1945, he turned to music and studied composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and voice with teachers in Copenhagen, where he was later to make his home. He gave his debut recitals in those two cities in 1947.

Borg’s opera debut followed in 1952, not in his home city – where his talents were, at first, under-appreciated – but in Aarhus, in Denmark, as Colline in La Bohème. This led to his breakthrough, when he was invited to take the short, but plum, bass role of Prince Gremin in Yevgeny Onegin at the Royal Opera, Copenhagen, where he was immediately engaged on a regular basis.

It was at this point that Borg’s international career took wing. He was engaged to sing the oily monk Rangoni to Christoff’s Boris Godunov in Issay Dobrowen’s ground-breaking recording of Mussorgsky’s opera for EMI in 1952. Soon, Deutsche Grammophon was on his trail, and he made a number of recordings of opera, oratorio and song for the company during the following 10 years.

Borg was much admired in Germany and, from 1965 to 1968, was a member of the Hamburg State Opera. But he was always welcome in his native Scandinavia, and from 1960 was a member of the Stockholm Opera, where his Scarpia was much praised in 1963. In 1971, he sang Fafner and Hagen in the company’s performances of Wagner’s Ring. A year earlier, he sang Osmin at the Drottningholm festival, another histrionic triumph.

He appeared in concerts at the Salzburg festival from 1956, singing Mozart, and in 1965-66 sang Pimen in Karajan’s staging of Boris Godunov. His Mussorgskian credentials were also confirmed by a fine recording of Songs and Dances of Death.

In 1972 he became professor of singing at the music academy in Copenhagen, though he had equivocal views on the art of teaching singers. He was also much in demand as an adjudicator at singing competitions. A wise and intelligent man and singer, he appreciated that musicianship was as important as voice in his art. His career confirmed that.

He married Ebon Karin Ingeborg Ringblom in 1950; they had two children.

• Kim Borg, bass-baritone, born August 7 1919; died April 28 2000

Courtesy: The Guardian

Kim Borg photo taken on 1965

Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

 

 

AZAT ABBASOV, Tenor * 19 January 1925, Yelabuga, Russia + 11 October 2006, Kazan, Russia

Abbasov Azat Zinnät ulı ([ʌˈbɑsəf ʌˈzɑt ziːnˈnæt uˈlɯ]; Cyrillic: Аббасов Азат Зиннәт улы; Russian АббаXсов АзаXд (АзаXт) ЗиннаXтович, Abbasov Azad (Azat) Zinnatovich; (19 January 1925 – 11 October 2006) was a Tatar opera singer (lyric-dramatic tenor) who was awarded with the People’s Artist of the USSR in 1977.

He graduated from Kazan Aviation Technical School and worked at the “Kazan Helicopters” plant as a designer. In 1944, when the friend of Abbasovs’ family, Tatar composer Salix Säydäş advised him to devote himself to professional singing, Azat entered the Tatar National Opera Studio within the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated from the conservatory in 1950 and returned to Kazan. In 1950s-1990s he was a soloist of Kazan-based Musa Cälil Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Abbasov performed more than 100 parts in almost all leading performances. Major parts were Cälil, Tüläk (Cälil, Tülär and Susılu by Näcip Cihanov), Samat (Samat by Xösnulla Wäliulllin), Alfredo Gérmont (La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi), Sergey (Katerina Izmaylova by Dmitry Shostakovich).

He was known for the high vocal culture with an extremely accurate diction. His repertoire had large variety; it contained Russian, Tatar, and Western European opera classics. His merits in vocal art development are highly appreciated: he was given a rank of the Honoured Artist of Tatarstan, the People’s and Honoured artist of Russia and the USSR.

 

TAMAKI MIURA, Soprano * 22 February 1884, Japan + 26 May 1946, Tokyo, Japan;

Tamaki Miura (三浦 環 Miura Tamaki, February 22, 1884 – May 26, 1946) was a Japanese opera singer who performed as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

Biography
She was born on February 22, 1884 in Japan.

Miura made her operatic debut in Tokyo in 1911 and the same year went to Europe to perform and study. She was first cast as Cio-Cio-San by the innovative director Vladimir Rosing as part of his Allied Opera Season held in May and June 1915 at the London Opera House.

In the autumn of 1915, she performed the role in America for the first time in Chicago with the Boston Opera Company.[citation needed] She also sang in St. Louis, Missouri, in October that year. Positive reviews led to further performances in both Madama Butterfly and Mascagni’s Iris in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago, before returning to London to work with the Beecham company. In 1918 she returned to the United States where for two seasons she performed both Madama Butterfly and André Messager’s Madame Chrysanthème. The latter was not well-received, being viewed as a warmed-over Butterfly. In 1920 she was a guest performer at opera houses in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Florence and Rome. Upon her return to Japan from this tour, she stopped in Nagasaki in 1922 to see places connected with the opera and to give a concert.

In 1924, Miura returned to the United States to perform with the San Carlo Opera Company. Two years later she again went to Chicago to create the title role in Aldo Franchetti’s Namiko-San. After this she took part in various tours and sang in Italy (March 1931 she performed at the Teatro Verdi of Pisa with the famous tenor Armando Bini, at Carani in Sassuolo, Modena in Livorno, Florence, Lucca, Pistoia, Torino, Novi Ligure, Rimini) before returning to Japan in 1932.

She died on May 26, 1946 in Japan.

Legacy
Her statue, with that of Puccini, can be seen in Nagasaki’s Glover Garden.

While being highly praised for the “authenticity” of her performance of Cio-Cio-San, Miura’s voice has been described variously as “somewhat thin and unsupported” and “rather small and white”.

Tamaki Miura, 1916.

Statue of Tamaki Miura at Glover Garden

Tamaki Miura around the time of her US debut. Matzene Studio, “Tamaki Miura,” sepia-toned gelatin silver print photograph. Chicago ca. 1915–1917.

Image courtesy: Rob Lancefield

Tamaki Miura and Giacomo Puccini