Rosalind Elias
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Rosalind Elias (born March 13, 1931, in Lowell, Massachusetts) is an American mezzo-soprano who, during a long career with the Metropolitan Opera, created roles in both of Samuel Barber’s full-length operas: Erika in Vanessa (1958) and Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra (1966).
After studying at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music and Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center, Elias went to Italy, where she studied with Luigi Ricci at Rome's Accademia di Santa Cecilia.
She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Grimgerde in Wagner's Die Walküre on February 23, 1954.
In 1959, she sang Cherubino on Erich Leinsdorf’s Grammy-winning recording of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1964, she sang Suzuki to Leontyne Price’s Cio-Cio San on Leinsdorf’s Grammy-winning recording of Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra.
In more recent years, Elias has assumed the role of the Old Baroness in Vanessa, both at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and in the 2004 Los Angeles Opera production that marked Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's farewell to the stage.
[edit] External links
- Robert Wilder Blue's usOperaweb interview, "Charmed Life: Rosalind Elias Talks about Her Career and Samuel Barber"
- Marc Porter Zapada's Los Angeles Downtown News review, "A Vanessa Served Rare, with Delicious Irony"
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