(Credit: Courtesy Lester Dequaine Collection on Rosa Ponselle, Arthur Friedheim Library, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University) The customs agent stationed on the wharf wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing. An imposing, dark-haired woman with large brown eyes was preparing to board a ship for a voyage to the United States. Wrapped around her shoulder was what appeared to be {…}
(Credit: Metropolitan Opera) “It was the most glorious voice that ever came from any woman’s throat in the Italian repertory, with a precocious sense of line, style, and emotional honesty,” declared the legendary record producer Walter Legge, whose wife happened to be soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. “Ponselle began and ended prima donna assoluta.” Rosa Ponselle’s story really is the plot of {…}
(Credit: Colbert Artists Management) “My what?” James Morris, studying at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia, has received a phone call from his newly acquired agent at Sol Hurok management, an agent who had seen him perform elsewhere in the country and offered to represent him. Now, the agent has news: a date for Morris’ Met audition. The {…}
Rosa Ponselle, born on Jan. 22, 1897, is widely considered one of the greatest American sopranos of all time. The Meriden, Connecticut native was born Rosa Ponzillo and showed natural music gifts from her earliest years. She seemed more inclined toward a career in instrumental music, but eventually shifted toward a career in cabaret. She started off as a silent-movie {…}
When Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” hits the stage on Thursday, March 29, it will be the first time the opera is staged with the company in exactly 12 years. The cast will include Plácido Domingo and Piotr Beczala among the male leads, but will also showcase the third major work headlined by Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva at the Met in 2017-18. {…}
A Metropolitan Opera season will start with Bellini’s “Norma” for the third time in its history when Sondra Radvanovsky, who conquered the role at the Met a few years back, takes it on on Sept. 25, 2017. Radvanovsky will join a long line of famous sopranos that have taken on the opera with the company, beginning with Lilli Lehman, who {…}