Klara Barlow

Klara Barlow , actually Alma Claire Williams (born July 28, 1928 in Brooklyn , New York City , † January 20, 2008 in New York City) was an American opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

Williams first worked as a secretary, saleswoman, receptionist and model before pursuing an operatic career. She chose the stage name at the suggestion of a number symbolist who advised her to do so because of her career. She trained her voice with Cecile Jacobson in New York City and made her concert debut as a coloratura soprano in 1954 at Carnegie Hall . Despite excellent reviews, she was initially unable to get an engagement in America.

Therefore, in 1961, already divorced twice and taking care of a nine-year-old daughter, she moved to Europe, where she initially worked in Switzerland and gradually developed into a dramatic soprano. Finally, she made her professional operatic debut there as Venus in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser in 1962 at the Stadttheater Bern . From 1963, she sang the dramatic soprano repertoire at the Städtische Bühnen Oberhausen for two years. In 1965 she went to the Kiel Opera House , where she worked again for a year.

In 1966 she moved to Walter Felsenstein's Komische Oper Berlin . Here she was Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni when the house was reopened . The production was recorded by the DFF and broadcast live. During this season she also sang other roles with great success.

Barlow then went from 1967 to 1969 as the leading soprano at the Hessian State Theater in Wiesbaden and the next year at the Zurich Opera House . Here the heroines in the operas of Richard Wagner , Richard Strauss and Giuseppe Verdi became their domain.

She also had her first professional opera appearance in America during these years, in 1969 in the title role of Verdi's Aida , in the Portland Opera and at the San Diego Opera ( Elizabeth in Tannhäuser ).

In 1967 Barlow also sang her first Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Kiel, but it wasn't until her Isolde from 1968 at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto , as partner of Claude Heater as Tristan , that her real breakthrough came in this role. The production in Spoleto was both directed and directed by composer Gian Carlo Menotti .

Then Isolde was considered her most important role, which she sang frequently over the next six years, with particular success at the Metropolitan Opera , as partner of Jess Thomas as Tristan (1974); this production was again broadcast live on the radio. After Isolde from Birgit Nilsson Barlow's interpretation was that of a new generation of singers in which the Isolde of Barlow acted as attractive youthful woman in the sense of the drama authentic Actress.

Before that she had already sung her debut as Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio in 1971 , with Robert Nagy as Florestan and William Dooley as Don Pizarro , and she also sang Donna Anna here . Other roles sung by her there were Marina Mnicek in Boris Godunow (1975), Amelia in the Masked Ball (1975-1976) and the title role in Elektra (1975). In 1979 she sang Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Met .

She was heard several times in various Wagner roles, including Freia in Rheingold and Sieglinde in Die Walküre in the Ring of the Seattle Opera 1970–1972 as well as in 1976 Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung , a role she also played in the Dallas Opera performed in 1981. In 1972 she also sang the bel canto part of Mathilde in a concert performance of Gioachino Rossini's Wilhelm Tell with Louis Quilico as Tell . In 1973 she dared to make her debut as Elektra at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich , stepping in for a sick colleague with only 17 hours of preparation time. In 1974 she could also be seen at La Scala in Milan as Fata Morgana in Sergei Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges , as well as Leonore in Fidelio .

In 1975 Barlow performed not only the great Leonoren aria, but also the final scene by Anna Bolena (Donizetti) and a staged performance of the first monologue of Elektra .

In the 1970s Barlow also sang at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1970), the Opéra national du Rhin (1970), the Houston Grand Opera (1970), the Vienna State Opera (1972 and 1974), the Scottish Opera (1973), the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1973), the Teatro Carlo Felice (1973), the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Turin (1974), the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1976–1977), the Cincinnati Opera (1978), and the Opera Company of Philadelphia (1981). Other houses at which Barlow appeared were the Budapest State Opera , the Théâtre du Capitole , Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen , the Canadian Opera Company , the Opera Memphis , the Palacio de Bellas Artes , the Hamburg State Opera , the Semperoper , and the Stuttgart State Opera . Among her roles were Abigaile in Nabucco , Agathe in Freischütz , Elisabetta in Don Carlos , Elsa in Lohengrin , Giulietta in Hoffmann's Stories , Minnie Falconer in La fanciulla del West , Senta in the Flying Dutchman , and finally the title roles in Arabella , Ariadne on Naxos , Jenůfa , Norma , Salome , Tosca and Turandot . Her Salome was also taped by CBC Television .

1985–1986 Barlow appeared again in Europe, as Elektra and Leonore at the Bremen Theater and as the dyer in Die Frau ohne Schatten in Bielefeld (director: John Dew ).

In 1987 she took over a professorship for voice training at Indiana University Bloomington , which she taught until 2002. She could still be seen on stage until the mid-1990s, including in world premieres.

Filmography

• 1966: Don Giovanni (theater recording)

Web link

• Klara Barlow on isoldes-liebestod.net