On Dec. 23, 2024 mezzo-soprano Regina Sarfaty died at the 90.

Born in November 1934 in Rochester, New York, Sarfaty grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and went on to win the Margaret McGill Scholarship to The Juilliard School.

She began studying at Juilliard in 1952  and graduated five years later with a Bachelor of Music.

As a young singer, Sarfaty won several awards including the Florence Eaton Award from the Berkshire Music Center, the Leopold Schepp Foundation Award, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Music Fund Prize, and the Naumburg Award.

While studying she she created the role of Zinida in the world premiere of Robert Ward’s “He Who Gets Slapped” at the Juilliard School and later sang it at the New York City Opera in 1959.

In 1957 she made her professional opera debut as Suzuki in “Madama Butterfly” at the Santa Fe Opera. It was the very first production of that opera company, and Safarty was the very first singer to appear on the stage of the Santa Fe Opera.

She had her major breakout with the Santa Fe Opera in the same season as Rosina in “The Barber of Seville” and gave three other performances with the company during that summer season. She would become a regular with Santa Fe until 1968 and performed such works as “Capriccio,”  “Così fan tutte,” “Falstaff,” “Anna Bolena,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Regina,” and “Carmen.”

In 1958, Sarfaty made her debut with the New York City Opera as the Widow Zimmerlein in Strauss’s “Die schweigsame Frau” and became a regular with the company singing there until 1962. She sang Angelina in “La Cenerentola,” Cherubino in “The Marriage of Figaro,” the title role in “Maria Golovin,” and Jocasta in “Oedipus Rex.” She also sang two world premieres with the company, the role of “the Mezzo” in Hugo Weisgall’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” and Douglas Moore’s “The Wings of the Dove.”

In 1960, Sarfaty made her European debut as Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Glyndebourne Festival where she ended up performing with for 24 years. She also performed with the Frankfurt Opera, the Bayersiche Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, and Opéra National de Paris. In the early 1960s, she joined the roster of the Zurich Opera and remained there through the late 1970s.

In the 1980s, Sarfaty continued to perform such roles as Mrs Herring in “Albert Herring” at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Madame Croissy in “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”

The mezzo also appeared in various recordings including as Adele in Bellini’s “Il pirata,” opposite Maria Callas, and “The Secretary” in a film of Menotti’s “The Consul.” She also recorded Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under conductor Leonard Bernstein.