Maureen Forrester

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Maureen Forrester, photographed by Carl van Vechten , 1960

Maureen Forrester , CC , OQ , O.Ont (born July 25, 1930 in Montreal , Québec , † June 16, 2010 in Toronto ) was a Canadian opera singer with an alto voice .

Life

Maureen Forrester was the youngest of four children of Thomas Forrester, a cabinet maker of Scottish descent, and his Scottish- Irish wife May Arnold into a musical working-class family. Forrester dropped out of high school at the age of nearly 14 and worked as a secretary and operator for the Bell Telephone Company . With her salary she financed her singing lessons . She also received a singing scholarship from the Montreal Social Club. Her singing teachers were Sally Martin, the English tenor Frank Rowe , but especially the Dutch baritone Bernard Diamant , professor at the École Vincent d'Indy, a private music school, in Montreal and at McGill University . During his training, her voice developed into contralto , her real natural pitch.

Forrester initially sang in church choirs and in the Canadian radio choir . In December 1951 she made her professional debut as a singer in a concert of the Montreal Elgar Choir at the Salvation Army Citadel in Montreal with Edward Elgar's composition The Music Makers , op. 69 for mezzo-soprano , choir and orchestra. She sang her first opera roles with the Opera Guild of Montreal: in January 1953 the small role of the seamstress Irma in the opera Louise by Gustave Charpentier and in January 1954 the landlady in Boris Godunow . Forrester was mainly active as a concert singer during this time. In March 1953, she gave her first solo recital with the Montreal Young Women's Christian Association with the German- born, Montreal-based pianist and voice coach John Newmark , who became her constant accompanist in the years that followed. In December 1953 she made her debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony under the musical direction of Otto Klemperer . In 1954 she made her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with Georg Friedrich Handel's oratorio The Messias . In January 1955 Forrester made her European debut in Paris with a recital in the Salle Gaveau . Further recitals followed until January 1956, including at the BBC in London and at Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne . In 1956 she had great success at her concert in New York's Town Hall with Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony (Mahler) under the conductor Bruno Walter . She then engaged her as a soloist for his farewell tour in February 1957 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall . In 1957 she gave concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London under Sir Thomas Beecham and with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin , and later also the Verdi Requiem under Sir Malcolm Sargent in London . In 1958 she sang the Alto Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms with the Vancouver Bach Choir at the Vancouver International Festival , also under the direction of Bruno Walter. In 1963 she sang in a TV production at NBC in the St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach . In 1968 she sang the alto solo in the Stabat mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi at the Salzburg Festival .

In the concert hall, Forrester was particularly considered to be an interpreter of Gustav Mahler's music . She sang the solo roles in Mahler's symphonies, the songs from the Des Knaben Wunderhorn cycle and again and again Das Lied von der Erde , in later years of her career, among others, in 1986 with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Richard Margison as tenor partner. She also frequently took on the mezzo-soprano role in Edward Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius .

From the late 1950s, Forrester turned increasingly to opera and developed into one of the leading singers in the dramatic mezzo-soprano and alto field. At the American Society Opera in November 1958 she had already sung Cornelia in Georg Friedrich Handel's opera Julius Caesar in a concert performance . In May 1962, she made her stage debut as Orpheus in Orfeo ed Euridice . The main roles in her operatic repertoire were Erda and Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen , Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde , Klytämnestra in Elektra , Herodias in Salome , the witch in Hansel and Gretel , Ulrica in A Masked Ball and the old Countess in Queen of Spades .

She has made guest appearances at the Teatro Colón (1963 as Brangäne), at the New York City Opera (1966 as Cornelia , 1983 as Madame de la Haltière in Jules Massenet's Cendrillon ), at the Covent Garden Opera (1971 as Fricka), at the Metropolitan Opera (1975–1977 as Fricka and Ulrica), at the San Francisco Opera (1967 as La Cieca in La Gioconda , 1982 as Madame de la Haltière), at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1984 as Klytämnestra with Leonie Rysanek , Ute Vinzing and Bent Norup as partners) and at La Scala in Milan (1990 as Countess in Queen of Spades , 1993 as Mme de Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc ). She has also sung at the opera houses of Quebec (1974 as Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff , 1975 as Brangäne), Edmonton (1971 as Ulrica, 1977 as Herodias), Pittsburgh (1989 as Klytämnestra), Washington (1993 as Madame de la Haltière) and San Diego (1984 as the witch in Hansel and Gretel ). In February 1990 she sang the role of old Mme de Croissy in a new production of the opera Dialogues des Carmélites at the San Diego Opera. In the 1991/92 season she sang the Queen of Spades - Countess in a semi-staged production in Boston (conductor: Seiji Ozawa , with Atlantow / Freni as partners). In the 1992/93 season she appeared at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as the mother of the heroine in a new production of the opera Louise . In 1993 she sang the Queen of Spades - Countess again at the Opera House in Santiago de Chile . In 1994 she made her belated debut at the Montreal Opera House in the role of Marquise de Berkenfield in Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera The Regiment's Daughter .

In May 1989 she sang the alto part in Mendelssohn's Elias in the Berlin Philharmonic . Forrester appeared regularly as a concert singer until the mid-1990s, including in 1995 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. In 2001, also in Toronto, she last appeared in a concert as a singer.

Private

In 1957 Forrester married the violinist and conductor Eugene Kash . The marriage produced five children, including actors Linda Kash and Daniel Kash . The marriage ended in divorce in 1974 . From the mid-1990s, Forrester began to show signs of Alzheimer's disease. Forrester usually continued to fulfill commitments that had already been made. In 2002 Forrester finally retired to a retirement and nursing home in Toronto. Forrester died in June 2010 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

voice

Maureen Forrester's voice was a dark-timed, clear and powerful mezzo-soprano. Forrester had an unusually large vocal range and was therefore able to sing both large mezzo-soprano parts as well as the classical alto part. It had a pronounced low register that effortlessly reached into the depths of the contra-alto range. From the beginning of the 1990s, Forrester became noticeably less powerful. She therefore shifted her focus to the character subject in opera.

Awards and honorary positions

In 1967 Forrester was named Companion of the Order of Canada . In 1988 she received the Toronto Arts Award. In 1990 she received the Order of Ontario . In 1990 she also became a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame . In 1990 she received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. In 2003 she was appointed officer of the Ordre national du Québec .

From 1984 to 1988 Forrester was Chair of the Canada Council . From 1986 to 1990 she was Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University . She has also received over 30 honorary doctorates from various universities in Canada.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Dreyer: BOSTON: PIQUE DAME . Performance review. In: Opera glasses . Issue January 1, 1992. pp. 16/17.
  2. ^ Canadian Music Hall of Fame - Inductees. Canadian Music Hall of Fame , accessed August 6, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Forrester, Maureen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian opera and concert singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal , Quebec
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 2010
Place of death Toronto