Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

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Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (March 1, 1954 – July 3, 2006) was a renowned American soprano then mezzo-soprano, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. [1].

Contents

[edit] Her Life

Her parents were both involved with the opera; mother, Marcia, was a contralto and music teacher and her father, Randolph, taught music in high school and college. She performed as a child in Hansel & Gretel, as a gingerbread boy. She returned to opera after doing a charity performance at a prison, singing Hansel's role in Hansel & Gretel. After this performance, she auditioned for the Met, at age 29.

She married composer Peter Lieberson in 1999 and changed her name to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; they collaborated professionally as well. Among their collaborations are Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs, both of which were issued in recordings, as well as Hunt Lieberson's performance in the world premiere of his opera Ashoka's Dream at the Santa Fe Opera.

She died after a long battle with breast cancer on July 3, 2006 at the age of 52 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Only a few years previously, she had nursed her sister through her final illness with the same disease. [2]

[edit] Career

She began her musical career as a violist, and became principal viola with the San Jose Symphony. At age 26, she turned to studying voice seriously at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Her professional career as a singer began in 1984, and in 1985 made her operatic debut after meeting Peter Sellars and appearing in his 1985 production of Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Her debut performance at the Metropolitan Opera came during the 1999-2000 season, in eleven performances in the role of Myrtle Wilson in the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby (first perfomance on December 20, 1999). During this same season, she also appeared as Sesto in the New York City Opera's production of La Clemenza di Tito, as well playing La Perelin in Kaija Saariaho's Clemence at the Salzburg Festival. Her only other performance at the Met came in the 2001-2002 season in the role of Dido in Berlioz' Les Troyens, where she appeared in four performances in February, 2002.

Among the roles she played during her career are Sesto (Mozart's La clemenza di Tito), Carmen (Bizet), Médée (Marc-Antoine Charpentier, with William Christie & Les Arts Florissants), Theodora and Irene (Handel's Theodora, "Theodora" at Göttingen with Nicholas McGegan, Irene at Glyndebourne with Christie), Minerva (Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with René Jacobs) and Xerxes (Handel).

She made a number of recordings, including works of Bach and Handel, as well as modern works.

Critical opinions of her work, both in live performance and in recordings, have generally been high. Most reviewers make note of her beautiful tone and controlled style.

In 2004, in the subtitle of a New Yorker article, Charles Michener called Lieberson "a mezzo with the most potent voice since Callas".

Those who worked with Hunt Lieberson have spoken of her intense commitment to the detail of bringing a piece to life. French vocal coach Denise Massé said in the same New Yorker magazine interview, “Lorraine is like Callas in her determination to dig as deeply as possible into the character—to find all the grain in the wood.”

In 2007, she posthumously received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for her Rilke Songs.

[edit] Recordings

Her most recent recordings include two of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantatas, #82 and #199 , which made the New York Times top 10 classical albums of the year and No. 3 on the Billboard classical chart. She also recorded a CD of George Frideric Handel's Arias. Musical America recognized her as the 2001 Vocalist of the Year.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ New York Times obituary, July 2006
  2. ^ New York Times

[edit] External Links and Sources

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