Blanche Thebom
Blanche Thebom (born September 19, 1915 in Monessen , Pennsylvania , † March 23, 2010 in San Francisco ) was an American opera singer ( mezzo-soprano / alto ), who was best known as a Wagner singer.
Life
Thebom was the daughter of Swedish immigrants. She grew up in Canton, Ohio. When she and her parents visited Sweden by ship in the 1930s, the pianist Kosti Vehanen discovered her talent and passed it on to the mezzo-soprano Edyth Walker , who became her most important teacher.
Thebom gave her first concert in New York in January 1941 with a program of works by Jules Massenet , Georg Friedrich Handel , Modest Petrovich Mussorgski and Johannes Brahms .
Thebom made her operatic debut in November 1944 in a performance of the Metropolitan Opera in Philadelphia as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde . The following month she sang Fricka in Die Walküre at the Met . In the same year she made her screen debut in the musical film Irish Eyes Are Smiling .
In 1957 the singer went on a tour of the Soviet Union , where she gave the title role in Carmen in the Bolshoi Theater . Thebom's repertoire also included the Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore or the Amneris in Aida . By 1967 she appeared in more than 350 performances at the Met. That same year she became Artistic Director of the Atlanta Municipal Theater. After it closed, she founded the Southern Regional Opera in Atlanta. She also gave concerts with the soprano Eleanor Steber .
From 1973, Thebom taught singing at the University of Arkansas . She gave private lessons in San Francisco, where she last lived. Blanche Thebom was married to Richard Metz and the marriage ended in divorce.
Web links
- Literature by and about Blanche Thebom in the catalog of the German National Library
- Margalit Fox: Blanche Thebom, Star at the Met and Beyond, Dies at 94. In: The New York Times . March 27, 2010. (English)
- Blanche Thebom in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Opera star gets position. In: Windsor Star. June 21, 1967.
- ^ Vina Windes: Opera Not dead in Atlanta, Blache Thebom Declares. In: Waycross Journal-Herald. March 6, 1969.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thebom, Blanche |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American opera singer (mezzo-soprano / alto) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 19, 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Monessen , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 23, 2010 |
| Place of death | San Francisco |