Rosalind Elias

Rosalind Elias (March 13, 1929) is an American mezzo-soprano, a rich-voiced singer of fine musicianship who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.

Rosalind Elias was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. She appeared with the New EnglandOpera from 1948 to 1952. She then left for Italy to complete her vocal studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with Luigi Ricci and Nazzareno de Angelis.

Elias made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Grimgerde in Richard Wagner's "Die Walkure", on February 23, 1954. She sang more than 450 performances of some 45 roles there, including Bersi in "Andrea Chenier", Laura in "La Gioconda", Suzuki in "Madama Butterfly", Siebel in "Faust", Nancy in "Martha", Cherubino in "Nozze di Figaro", Dorabella in "Cosi fan tutte", Olga in "Eugene Onegin", Marina in "Boris Godunov", Fenena in "Nabucco", Azucena in "Il Trovatore" and Amneris in "Aida". On tour with the Met she also sang "Carmen" and Charlotte in "Werther". She created the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's opera "Vanessa" on January 15, 1958, and the role of Charmian in "Antony and Cleopatre" by the same composer, for the opening of new Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Centre, on September 16, 1966.

Elias also performed abroad, notably as "La Cenerentola" with the Scottish Opera in 1970, as "Carmen" at the Vienna State Opera in 1972, and as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress" at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1975.

Elias made several recordings, including Cherubino in "Nozze di Figaro" under Erich Leinsdorf, Preziosilla in "La forza del destino" and Laura in "La Gioconda", both opposite Zinka Milanov, Giuseppe di Stefano and Leonard Warren, Suzuki in "Madama Butterfly" twice, first opposite Anna Moffo in 1957, and then opposite Leontyne Price in 1962, Azucena in "Il Trovatore" opposite Leontyne Price, Richard Tucker, Giorgio Tozzi, as well as Maddalena in "Rigoletto" and Meg Page in "Falstaff" both under Georg Solti in 1963.

In recent years, Elias has assumed the role of the Old Baroness in "Vanessa", both at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and at the Los Angeles Opera, a production that also marked Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's farewell to the stage in 2004.

Sources

* D. Hamilton (ed.),"The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the World of Opera" (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X
* "The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta", James Anderson. ISBN 0-517-09156-9
* "The Metropolitan Opera Archives"

External links

* [http://www.usoperaweb.com/2002/september/elias.htm Robert Wilder Blue's usOperaweb interview, "Charmed Life: Rosalind Elias Talks about Her Career and Samuel Barber"]
* [http://www.theurbanman.com/laopeningnights/reviewsfolder/vanessa2004.htm Marc Porter Zapada's "Los Angeles Downtown News" review, "A "Vanessa" Served Rare, with Delicious Irony"]