Soprano Astrid Varnay at 88
tr...@iwvisp.com
made her Metropolitan Opera debut -- virtually without rehearsal -- in
a nationally broadcast performance and went on to sing for half a
century, has died. She was 88.
Varnay died Monday in a Munich hospital of a pericardial infection,
said Donald Arthur, a longtime friend who ghostwrote her autobiography.
She had been seriously ill for some time, he said in a telephone
interview with The Associated Press.
"She had such a voice, a technique, a presence, a personality," Met
Music Director James Levine said Tuesday. "She was unforgettable."
Varnay was a contemporary of some of the great Wagnerian sopranos,
singing in an era that included Kirsten Flagstad, Birgit Nilsson, Helen
Traubel and Martha Moedl. Levine, who conducted her final Met
performances in 1979, met her frequently in Germany during his tenure
as music director of the Munich Philharmonic.
"There is nobody who did what she does better than she did," Levine
said in a telephone interview. "I will miss that woman a lot. Every
time I think of her, I think of the energy and the inspiration."
Varnay was born in Stockholm on April 25, 1918, to Hungarian parents
involved in opera. The family moved to the United States in 1920, where
her father, tenor Alexander Varnay, died at age 35 in 1924.
She trained her singing voice first under her mother, Maria Javor
Varnay, then New York Metropolitan Opera staff conductor and coach
Hermann Weigert, whom she married in 1944.
Because an opera career in the United States was deemed unlikely, she
also was taking courses in stenography and typing.
But Varnay got her break on December 6, 1941 -- a day before the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -- when she filled in for an indisposed
Lotte Lehmann as Sieglinde in Wagner's "Die Walkuere" in a performance
conducted by Erich Leinsdorf that was broadcast nationally on radio.
While accounts over the years said she had no rehearsal, a report in
The New York Times later that month said she had filled in as Sieglinde
during an orchestral rehearsal three weeks before her debut, and she
wrote in her autobiography that she had a rehearsal with piano the
previous day.
Six days after her debut, Varnay sang her second professional
performance, taking over from an ill Helen Traubel as Bruennhilde, one
of the toughest soprano roles in the repertoire.
"The exceedingly comely Swedish-American soprano acted with a skill and
grace only possible to those with an inborn talent for the theater,"
Noel Strauss wrote in the Times the day after her debut.
"Miss Varnay is a valuable addition to the Metropolitan roster, but her
fine abilities would be employed to much better purpose in roles making
less heavy demands on her voice, a voice of such innate beauty that it
should not be used in parts like this, which might easily impair its
quality."
Arthur worked with Varnay for five years on her autobiography,
"Fifty-Five Years In Five Acts: My Life in Opera," and remembers
talking with her about the Met debut for chapter 1.
"She was pushed out on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera never having
sung anywhere in public, and sang the leading role in "Die Walkuere" in
a broadcast at age 23," he said. "We were working on it and one of the
things I wrote was that 'presumably everyone on the stage was two times
my age.' She said: 'What is this presumably nonsense? We'll look it
up.' We looked it up and every member of that cast was either two times
her age or more."
She would sing some 200 performances with the Metropolitan Opera over
her career, though left in 1956 for nearly two decades over conflicts
with general manager Rudolf Bing.
Arthur remembers her description of her departure -- indicative of her
sharp wit.
Bing "said 'I'm thinking of giving you a leave of absence.' Well, she
had a whole raft of contracts waiting for her in Europe and said: 'I
don't think I need a leave of absence, I think I need to leave,' "
Arthur recalled.
"He said: 'Keep us informed about your career,' and she said: 'You can
read about it in your papers.' "
Varnay originated the role of Telea in the world premiere of Gian Carlo
Menotti's "The Island of God" at the Met on February 20, 1942.
Varnay was seen for the first time in Europe in 1948, where she put on
a guest performance at London's Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
>From 1951 to 1968, she sang at the Bayreuth festival in Germany as
Bruennhilde and Isolde, among others.
Following her husband's death in 1955, she made Europe her permanent
home, settling in Munich.
She became a mainstay at some of the world's great opera houses,
particularly in Germany, where she sang at venues around the country.
She returned to the Met in 1974 after an 18-year absence, singing
Kostelnicka in Janacek's "Jenufa." Her final Met performance was as
Leocadia Begbick in Weill's "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" on
December 22, 1979.
In the mid-1980s, Varnay turned more to character roles. Her last stage
appearance was in Munich in 1995.
Varnay had no close relatives, Arthur said. Funeral arrangements were
private.
Ray Arthur
Charlene
tr...@iwvisp.com wrote:
> BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Astrid Varnay, the Swedish-American soprano who
> made her Metropolitan Opera debut -- virtually without rehearsal -- in
> a nationally broadcast performance and went on to sing for half a
> century, has died. She was 88.
The Phantom has been busy this year. I've probably missed some, but
here's a list of some of the opera people who have died since January
1:
SINGERS: Astrid Varnay, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Leopold Simoneau,
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Elizabeth Fretwell, Maria Prerauer, Archie
Drake, Elaine Barry, Herta Glaz, Carolyn Bailey Argento, Ludovic Spiess
CONDUCTORS (and often composers): Heinrich Hollreiser, Thomas Osborn,
Manuel Ochoa, Howard Shanet, Richard Kapp
MUSICIANS: John Mack, Michael Nitschke, Nathalie Ghent, Peter Segal,
David Weber
COMPOSERS: Gyorgy Ligeti, Michael Hurd, Tony D'Amato
OTHER: philanthropist Renee Kraft (who gave enormous amounts of money
to the Washington Opera); director Daniel Schmid; Washington Opera
impresario Martin Feinstein; opera society founders Charles Farncombe
and James H. Schwabacher; choreographer Katherine Dunham; occasional
librettist Wendy Wasserstein
And my personal favourite, from January:
"Her Excellency, Countess Pauline de Farrell de Milos, O.S.J. passed
from this plane at the age of 93. Celebrated Opera Diva, Stock Broker,
Financial Consultant, Public Speaker, Writer, Ambassador to Poland &
Uganda and above all, tirelessly dedicated humanitarian and animal
advocate."
And of course both Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne were diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer this year.
wd42
MGW
scrawled:
>
> And of course both Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne were diagnosed
> with pancreatic cancer this year.
Damn - I didn't know about Marilyn Horne. I once saw her in recital
at Symphony Hall - a wonderful experience.
--
MGW
Statistics means never having to say you're certain.
(Note: my Hotmail address is seldom checked)
weiss...@yahoo.com
Charlene wrote:
> tr...@iwvisp.com wrote:
> > BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Astrid Varnay, the Swedish-American soprano who
> > made her Metropolitan Opera debut -- virtually without rehearsal -- in
> > a nationally broadcast performance and went on to sing for half a
> > century, has died. She was 88.
>
> The Phantom has been busy this year. I've probably missed some, but
> here's a list of some of the opera people who have died since January
> 1:
>
> SINGERS: Astrid Varnay, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Leopold Simoneau,
> Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Elizabeth Fretwell, Maria Prerauer, Archie
> Drake, Elaine Barry, Herta Glaz, Carolyn Bailey Argento, Ludovic Spiess
And Birgit Nilsson who although she died on December 25th wasn't
reported until the second week in January.