Teresa Stratas

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Teresa Stratas (born May 26, 1938 in Toronto , Ontario , actually Anastasia Strataki ) is a Canadian opera singer ( soprano ) of Greek descent.

Life

She first sang Schlager in night clubs before friends won her over for classical music . At the age of 20 she appeared on an opera stage for the first time in her hometown of Toronto as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème . The petite singer brought herself into conversation all over the world as Violetta in Franco Zeffirelli's La traviata film from 1982 (together with Plácido Domingo ), in which she was enthusiastic both vocally and as an actor. As early as 1965 she sang this role with great success at the side of Fritz Wunderlich ( Hermann Prey and Brigitte Fassbaender in other roles ) at the Munich Opera .

At the Salzburg Festival between 1969 and 1980 she performed various roles in Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro under Seiji Ozawa , Karl Böhm , Herbert von Karajan and Gustav Kuhn .

In Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny , she sang Jenny ; In 1979 she sang the title role in Alban Berg's Lulu (world premiere of the three-act version completed by Friedrich Cerha at the Paris Opera under the direction of Pierre Boulez , staged by Patrice Chéreau ), which was also awarded the Grammy Award in 1981. Two years after this spectacular performance, she canceled all opera dates in order to work at Mother Teresa's orphanage in Calcutta .

From 1986 she appeared on stage again. She first appeared in the musical Rags on Broadway. In 1991 she took part in the world premiere of John Corigliano's opera The Ghosts of Versailles at the Met .

Discography

Filmography

Web links