Jean Madeira

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Jean Madeira, 1966

Jean Madeira born Jean Browning ( November 14, 1918 in Centralia , Illinois - July 10, 1972 in Providence , Rhode Island ) was an American opera singer with the mezzo-soprano and alto voices . Her star roles were Carmen, Azucena and Klytämnestra as well as Erda in Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen .

She performed at the Vienna State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival and was part of the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

life and work

Her father was half of Indian origin. She attended high school in East St. Louis , Illinois, and received piano lessons from her mother. From 1941 she studied first piano, then singing at the Juilliard School in New York City. Karin Branzell was one of her teachers . She made her debut in Chautauqua , New York, as Nancy in Flotow's Martha . In 1947, the composer Gian Carlo Menotti engaged them for the European tour of his opera Das Medium . In 1948 she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as the first norn in Götterdämmerung . She remained loyal to the company until she left the stage in 1971 and sang more than forty roles in around 370 performances in Manhattan and on the Met tours across the country, first small roles, later also the major roles in her field.

An international career developed in the 1950s with invitations to the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals , the State Operas of Munich and Vienna, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and the Royal Court Opera in Stockholm, Milan and Paris. In Europe she presented herself as Carmen, Amneris, Azucena and Erda and, at a young age, as the aging Klytemnestra, mother of Orest, Elektra and Chrysothemis, her husband's murderer. In these prime roles, she also appeared at the Met and in Chicago from 1956. She sang the Klytämnestra under the direction of famous conductors such as Karl Böhm and Dmitri Mitropoulos , there are several audio documents. Over the years, four leading roles were added, which she played with passion, Orfeo, Ulrica, Dalila and Fricka, wife of Wotan, who in Vienna in 1957 Valkyries -Neuinszenierung led by von Karajan Herbert embodied. Her profound alto voice was described as "velvety", also as "gleaming anthracite" - as a shining anthracite. Her acting skills were also praised, with her good looks being helpful in creating credible designs for the great seductresses Carmen and Dalila.

In 1958 she made her debut as Carmen at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, conducted by Thomas Beecham . In 1966 she returned to Buenos Aires as Klytemnestra. In 1971, already suffering from cancer, she said goodbye to the stage. She sang Klytämnestra in Elektra with Birgit Nilsson in the title role and Leonie Rysanek as Chrysothemis. She died the following year.

The singer was married from 1947 to Francis Madeira, music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. The couple lived in Warwick Neck on Narragansett Bay .

roll

premiere

Repertoire (selection)

Bizet :

Britten :

Luck :

Mascagni :

Mozart :

Ponchielli :

Puccini :

Rossini :

Saint-Saëns :

 

Richard Strauss :

Tchaikovsky :

Verdi :

Wagner :

literature

Web links

Commons : Jean Madeira  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wiener Staatsoper : Search result: Performances with Else Schürhoff , accessed on August 20, 2020