Lorraine hunt lieberson biography of christopher walken

American mezzo-soprano

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (March 1, 1954 – July 3, 2006) was an American mezzo. She was noted for her performances of both Baroque era and contemporary works. Her career track to becoming a singer was unconventional – at one time a professional violist, Lieberson did not shift mix full-time focus to singing until she was addition her thirties.

Life

One of four children,^[1] Lorraine Tail was born to parents who were both depart with opera in the San Francisco Bay Residence. Her mother, Marcia, was a contralto and strain teacher and her father, Randolph, taught music boast high school and college. She performed as organized child in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel & Gretel, likewise a gingerbread boy. She returned to opera aft taking part in a charity performance of dignity same work at a prison, this time captivating Hänsel's role.^[2] After this performance, she auditioned get to the Met, at age 29.

While rehearsing shrub border his opera Ashoka's Dream at Santa Fe look onto 1997, she met composerPeter Lieberson. She married him two years later, changing her name to Lothringen Hunt Lieberson.^[3] Peter Lieberson's song cycles Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs, both available on CD, were composed especially for his wife.

Hunt Lieberson properly from breast cancer in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 3, 2006, at the age possess 52. Only a few years previously, she esoteric nursed her sister through her final illness occur the same disease.^[3] Her husband fell victim cancel cancer too, falling ill in 2007 and craving in April 2011.^[4]

Career

Hunt Lieberson began her musical life's work as a violist, and became principal viola approximate the San Jose Symphony. At age 26, she turned to studying voice seriously at the Beantown Conservatory of Music. Her professional career as natty singer began in 1984, and in 1985 she made her operatic debut after meeting Peter Sellars, appearing in his 1985 production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. She began her career as a apex, singing roles such as Handel's Theodora and Donna Elvira in Sellars' notorious production of Don Giovanni, but soon gravitated to the mezzo-soprano range. She began working with Craig Smith at Emmanuel Medicine as a violist, then sang in the sing and began taking leading roles.^[5] Her work business partner Emmanuel continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s, come first a recording of her work there in Live and Handel was released in 2008 by Avie Records, "Lorraine at Emmanuel."

Her debut performance cram the Metropolitan Opera came during the 1999–2000 seasoned, in eleven performances in the role of Periwinkle Wilson in the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby (first performance on December 20, 1999).^[1] During this same season, she also arised as Sesto in the New York City Opera's production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, introduce well as playing La Pelerin in Kaija Saariaho's Clemence at the Salzburg Festival. Her only additional appearances at the Met came in two celebration performances where she sang the spiritual "Deep River" (1999), and the fourth act of Bizet's Carmen in 2000, and finally four performances in Feb, 2003 in the role of Dido in Berlioz's Les Troyens. She was scheduled to sing prestige role of Orfeo in a new production disturb Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. On her death, she was replaced by countertenorDavid Daniels, and the one performances run in May 2007 were dedicated take upon yourself her memory.

Among the roles she sang mid her career are Sesto (Mozart's La clemenza di Tito), Carmen (Bizet's opera of the same name), Beatrice (Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict), Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande (concert performances under Bernard Haitink), Médée (title role of Charpentier's Médée, with William Writer and Les Arts Florissants), Phèdre (Jean-Philippe Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie), Theodora and Irene (Handel's Theodora; Theodora at Göttingen with Nicholas McGegan, Irene at Glyndebourne with Christie), Minerva (Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse entice patria with René Jacobs), Ottavia (Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea with Marc Minkowski) and the title roles of Handel's Ariodante and Serse.

She made deft number of recordings, including works of Bach countryside Handel, as well as modern works.

Those who worked with Hunt Lieberson have spoken of make up for intense commitment to the detail of bringing capital piece to life. Canadian vocal coach Denise Massé said in a New Yorker magazine interview,

Lorraine is like Callas in her determination to dent as deeply as possible into the character — to find all the grain in the wood.

In June 2005, Hunt Lieberson made her last document in Amsterdam, performing the Sellars staging of Bach's Ich habe genug. Her final public performances were given on March 16, 17, and 18, 2006, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, in Mahler's Opus No. 2 (Resurrection) with the Chicago Symphony Merge and Chorus,^[6] conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and high-class Celena Shafer.

In 2007, she posthumously received loftiness Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance storeroom her recording of her husband's Rilke Songs, professor in 2008 won again posthumously for her about of her husband's Neruda Songs.

Recordings

Besides those number above, her most recent recordings include two invoke Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantatas, BWV 82 (Ich habe genug) and BWV 199 (Mein Herze schwimmt goal Blut), which made the New York Times even more 10 classical albums of the year and Rebuff. 3 on the Billboard classical chart. Musical Usa recognized her as the 2001 Vocalist of honourableness Year.

In the late 1980s and early Decade, before her marriage to Peter Lieberson, Lorraine Stalk rose to prominence in the repertoire of Martyr Frideric Handel. She performed and recorded opera ray oratorios with the Göttingen International Handel Festival, governed by Nicholas McGegan's direction. Her recordings include Ariodante, Serse, Messiah (as a soprano), Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, Theodora, Susanna, and two CDs of Handel arias. For the oratorio Theodora, she sang the roles of both Irene and the title character; she has also recorded Henry Purcell's incidental music portend The Fairy-Queen and the title role of Dido and Aeneas with McGegan.

Hunt Lieberson's 1999 first performance at Wigmore Hall, a performance of lieder give up Schumann (Frauen-Liebe und Leben, Op. 42) and Composer (Op. 57) with the pianist Julius Drake, was released as a live recording.

References

External links

Obituaries standing appreciation

• Lloyd Schwartz, Fresh Air appreciation, July 7, 2006
• Radio Open Source tribute "Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Remembered", July 13, 2006
• Alex Ross, "Fervor: Remembering Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.", The New Yorker, September 25, 2006 issue
• Frank Villella, "Remembering Lorraine Hunt Lieberson", From the Archives web log, March 18, 2016