Lee Venora
Encyclopedia
Lee Venora is an American opera
tic soprano
and stage actress. She was highly active with the New York City Opera
between 1957 and 1967 and was also a regular performer at the San Francisco Opera
between 1961 and 1966. She also appeared in a few Broadway
musical
s, Lincoln Center Revivals, and national tours of musicals during her career. Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein
was an admirer of her voice, and she performed with him and the New York Philharmonic
on a number of occasions during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also sang with the orchestra on a couple of recordings and appears on a few musical recordings as well.
, Connecticut
, Venora studied singing at the Hartt School of Music. She made her first appearance at the New York City Opera
(NYCO) on April 6, 1958 as The Girl in the first professional production of Mark Bucci
's Tale for a Deaf Ear
with Patricia Neway
as Laura Gates, William Chapman
as Tracy Gates, and Arnold Gamson
conducting. In the 1958-1959 season she returned to the NYCO to sing Micaela in Georges Bizet
's Carmen
with Regina Resnik
in the title role and Richard Cassilly
as Don Jose, Lucia in Benjamin Britten
's The Rape of Lucretia with Frances Bible
in the title role, the title role in Carlisle Floyd
's Susannah
with Joshua Hecht
as Olin Blitch, the title role in Norman Dello Joio
's The Triumph of St. Joan
with Mack Harrell
as Cauchon and Chester Ludgin
as the Jailer, and Consuelo in the world premiere of Robert Ward's He Who Gets Slapped with Norman Kelley
as Count Mancini and Regina Sarfaty
as Zinida.
In 1959 Venora portrayed Monica in Gian Carlo Menotti
's The Medium
and Sophie in Richard Strauss
's Der Rosenkavalier
with the New York Philharmonic
(NYP) under the baton of Leonard Bernstein
for Bernstein's CBS television program Omnibus. She performed with that orchestra under Bernstein again for a televised Christmas concert in December 1959 and the role of Regina in a concert performance of Paul Hindemith
's Mathis der Maler in May 1960. She appeared on Bernstein's Omnibus again in March 1962 as Micaela and that same year recorded Johann Sebastian Bach
's Magnificat
with the NYP. Her other performances with the NYP include Gustav Mahler
's Symphony No. 2
with Jennie Tourel
in 1963 (also recorded) and a concert of Gilbert and Sullivan
works in 1964.
Venora made her Broadway
debut as Molly Bixby in October 1959 in the short lived Gordon Duffy musical Happy Town. On March 14, 1960 she performed the world premiere of four song cycle
s, one each by composers Stanley Hollings-Worth, Paul Ramsier
, Charles Turner
, and Lee Hoiby
respectively, in recital at Carnegie Hall
. In January 1961 she sang the role of Drusilla in Claudio Monteverdi
's L'incoronazione di Poppea
with the American Opera Society
under conductor Nicola Rescigno
. The following June she sang Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf naxos
at the Cincinnati Opera
with Eleanor Steber
in the title role, and in July she was seen as Leïla in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles
at the Empire State Music Festival. In November 1961 she returned to Broadway as Anna Danby in Robert Wright
and George Forrest
's Kean
. She also sang on the cast recording of the show made with Columbia Records
.
On May 5, 1961, Venora made her first of many appearances at the San Francisco Opera
(SFO) as Mimì in Giacomo Puccini
's La bohème
opposite George Shirley
as Rodolfo. She returned to the SFO annually through 1964, portraying such roles as Blanche in Francis Poulenc
's Dialogues of the Carmelites
, Concepción in Maurice Ravel
's L'heure espagnole
, Esmerelda in Bedřich Smetana
's The Bartered Bride
, the Guardian of the Temple Gates in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten
, Juliette in Charles Gounod
's Roméo et Juliette
, Klingsor's Maiden in Richard Wagner
's Parsifal
, Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
, Leila, Marzelline in Ludwig van Beethoven
's Fidelio
, Micaëla, Norina in Gaetano Donizetti
's Don Pasquale
, Susannah, and the title role in Puccini's Manon Lescaut
. She returned again in 1966 to portray Cherubino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's Le Nozze di Figaro, Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi
's Rigoletto
, and Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff
.
Venora returned to the NYCO on March 22, 1962 to portray Deborah in the world premiere of Abraham Ellstein
's The Golem under conductor Julius Rudel
. She returned to the company twice in the next two months to reprise the roles of Susannah and Monica (with Lili Chookasian
as Madame Flora). Shortly thereafter she appeared as Marsinah in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
's 1962 revival of Kismet
which started in Los Angeles and then toured the United States. She also appeared as Carrie Pipperidge in a 1962 recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein
's Carousel
with Alfred Drake
as Billy and Roberta Peters
as Julie Jordan.
In March 1964 Venora made her first appearance at New York City's Town Hall
giving a recital of mostly contemporary American works with accompianist David Garvey. She returned to the NYCO later that month to portray the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience
. She went on to portray roles in two Lincoln Center Revivals: Tutptim in The King and I
(1964, with Risë Stevens
as Anna) and again Marsinah in Kismet (1965); both of which were recorded. She made one last appearance at the NYCO in 1966, portraying Cio-Cio-San to the Pinkerton of Plácido Domingo
in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
. In November 1968 she portrayed Mimì to the Rodolfo of John Stewart
at the San Diego Opera
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
and stage actress. She was highly active with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
between 1957 and 1967 and was also a regular performer at the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
between 1961 and 1966. She also appeared in a few Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
s, Lincoln Center Revivals, and national tours of musicals during her career. Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
was an admirer of her voice, and she performed with him and the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
on a number of occasions during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also sang with the orchestra on a couple of recordings and appears on a few musical recordings as well.
Biography
Born in BridgeportBridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, Venora studied singing at the Hartt School of Music. She made her first appearance at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
(NYCO) on April 6, 1958 as The Girl in the first professional production of Mark Bucci
Mark Bucci
Mark Bucci was an American composer, lyricist, and dramatist. Influenced by Giacomo Puccini, his work is composed in a contemporary yet lyrical style which frequently employs marked rhythms and memorable harmonies and melodies.-Career:Bucci studied music composition with Tibor Serly in New York...
's Tale for a Deaf Ear
Tale for a Deaf Ear
Tale for a Deaf Ear is an opera in one act with music and lyrics by Mark Bucci, sung in three languages and based on a story by Elizabeth Enright that appeared in the April 1951 edition of Harper's Magazine. The work was commissioned by Samuel Wechsler for performance at the 1957 Tanglewood Music...
with Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway is an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. She is particularly remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of several contemporary American operas, most notably Magda Sorel in...
as Laura Gates, William Chapman
William Chapman (baritone)
William Chapman is an American operatic baritone and stage actor. He appeared in several Broadway productions and was notably a leading performer at the New York City Opera from 1957 through 1979.-Early career:...
as Tracy Gates, and Arnold Gamson
Arnold Gamson
Arnold U. Gamson is an American conductor who is particularly known for his work within the field of opera. He notably co-founded and served as the Music Director and principal conductor of the American Opera Society from 1950-1960...
conducting. In the 1958-1959 season she returned to the NYCO to sing Micaela in Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
with Regina Resnik
Regina Resnik
Regina Resnik is an American operatic singer.Regina Resnik, the American mezzo-soprano, started a dramatic career ten months after earning her B.A. in Music at Hunter College. The role was Lady Macbeth under Fritz Busch in December, 1942 with the New Opera Company. A few months later, she sang...
in the title role and Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
as Don Jose, Lucia in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's The Rape of Lucretia with Frances Bible
Frances Bible
Frances Lillian Bible was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had a thirty long year career at the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1978. She also made a fair number of opera appearances with other companies throughout the United States, but only made a limited number of appearances abroad...
in the title role, the title role in Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
's Susannah
Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
with Joshua Hecht
Joshua Hecht
Joshua Hecht is an operatic bass of international stature. Born in New York City, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, he received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University, in 1951....
as Olin Blitch, the title role in Norman Dello Joio
Norman Dello Joio
- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...
's The Triumph of St. Joan
The Triumph of St. Joan
The Triumph of St. Joan was originally an opera in three acts by Norman Dello Joio to an English language libretto on the subject of the martyrdom of Joan of Arc by Dello Joio and Joseph Machilis. It was premiered at Sarah Lawrence College on May 9, 1950. Although the opera was received positively,...
with Mack Harrell
Mack Harrell
Mack Harrell was an American baritone who was regarded as one of the greatest concert singers of his generation....
as Cauchon and Chester Ludgin
Chester Ludgin
-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...
as the Jailer, and Consuelo in the world premiere of Robert Ward's He Who Gets Slapped with Norman Kelley
Norman Kelley
Norman Kelley is a freelance journalist, author, and former segment producer at WBAI 99.5 FM.Kelley has written for numerous publications, including LA Weekly, The Village Voice, Newsday, and Brooklyn Rail...
as Count Mancini and Regina Sarfaty
Regina Sarfaty
Regina Sarfaty is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active career during the 1950s through the 1980s. Sarfaty first rose to prominence through her work at the Santa Fe Opera and the New York City Opera during the late 1950s...
as Zinida.
In 1959 Venora portrayed Monica in Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's The Medium
The Medium
The Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...
and Sophie in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
with the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
(NYP) under the baton of Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
for Bernstein's CBS television program Omnibus. She performed with that orchestra under Bernstein again for a televised Christmas concert in December 1959 and the role of Regina in a concert performance of Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's Mathis der Maler in May 1960. She appeared on Bernstein's Omnibus again in March 1962 as Micaela and that same year recorded Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Magnificat
Magnificat (Bach)
The Magnificat in D major, BWV 243, is a major vocal work of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed for orchestra, a five-part choir and four or five soloists. The text is the canticle of Mary, mother of Jesus, as told by Luke the Evangelist .Bach composed an initial version in E flat major in 1723...
with the NYP. Her other performances with the NYP include Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Symphony No. 2
Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler's most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his...
with Jennie Tourel
Jennie Tourel
Jennie Tourel was a Russian-American operatic mezzo-soprano, known for her work in both opera and recital performances....
in 1963 (also recorded) and a concert of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
works in 1964.
Venora made her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut as Molly Bixby in October 1959 in the short lived Gordon Duffy musical Happy Town. On March 14, 1960 she performed the world premiere of four song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
s, one each by composers Stanley Hollings-Worth, Paul Ramsier
Paul Ramsier
Paul Ramsier is a classical composer and pianist most noted for his contributions to the double bass literature.Ramsier, born in Louisville, Kentucky, showed promise as a pianist at the age of five and began composing at nine. At sixteen, he entered the University of Louisville School of Music...
, Charles Turner
Charles Turner (composer)
Charles Turner was an English composer and part-time spy, who took the last recorded British pre-World War II photographs of Adolf Hitler....
, and Lee Hoiby
Lee Hoiby
Lee Henry Hoiby was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism during a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned and irrelevant to modern society...
respectively, in recital at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. In January 1961 she sang the role of Drusilla in Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
's L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
with the American Opera Society
American Opera Society
The American Opera Society was a New York City based musical organization that presented concert and semi-staged performances of operas between 1951 and 1970...
under conductor Nicola Rescigno
Nicola Rescigno
Nicola Rescigno was an Italian-American conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory. Opera News said that "Rescigno was a seminal figure in the history of opera in America, a maestro and mentor who shaped the destiny and reputation of two major U.S...
. The following June she sang Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
at the Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States .-History:...
with Eleanor Steber
Eleanor Steber
Eleanor Steber was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States.-Biography:...
in the title role, and in July she was seen as Leïla in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
at the Empire State Music Festival. In November 1961 she returned to Broadway as Anna Danby in Robert Wright
Robert Wright (writer)
Robert [Craig] Wright was an American composer-lyricist for Hollywood and the musical theatre best known for the Broadway musical and musical film Kismet, for which he and his professional partner George Forrest adapted themes by Alexander Borodin and added lyrics...
and George Forrest
George Forrest (author)
George Forrest was a writer of music and lyrics for musical theatre best known for the show Kismet, adapted from the works of Alexander Borodin.-Biography:...
's Kean
Kean (musical)
Kean is a musical with a book by Peter Stone and music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest.Using material by Jean-Paul Sartre and Alexandre Dumas, père as its source, it centers on the adventures of Edmund Kean, considered the greatest Shakespearean actor of the 18th century, focusing...
. She also sang on the cast recording of the show made with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
On May 5, 1961, Venora made her first of many appearances at the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
(SFO) as Mimì in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
opposite George Shirley
George Shirley
George Irving Shirley is a renowned tenor opera singer.He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.-External links:*** by Bruce Duffie...
as Rodolfo. She returned to the SFO annually through 1964, portraying such roles as Blanche in Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
's Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites , is an opera in three acts by Francis Poulenc. In 1953, M. Valcarenghi approached Poulenc to commission a ballet for La Scala in Milan; when Poulenc found the proposed subject uninspiring, Valcarenghi suggested instead a screenplay by Georges Bernanos, based on the...
, Concepción in Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's L'heure espagnole
L'heure espagnole
L'heure espagnole is a one-act opera, described as a comédie musicale, with music by Maurice Ravel to a French libretto by Franc-Nohain, based on his play of the same name first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 28 October 1904...
, Esmerelda in Bedřich Smetana
Bedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
's The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...
, the Guardian of the Temple Gates in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917...
, Juliette in Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, Klingsor's Maiden in Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
, Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
, Leila, Marzelline in Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, Micaëla, Norina in Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, Susannah, and the title role in Puccini's Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité . It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication...
. She returned again in 1966 to portray Cherubino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Le Nozze di Figaro, Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, and Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
.
Venora returned to the NYCO on March 22, 1962 to portray Deborah in the world premiere of Abraham Ellstein
Abraham Ellstein
Abraham "Abe" Ellstein was an American composer for Yiddish entertainments. Along with Shalom Secunda, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Alexander Olshanetsky, Ellstein was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City's Second Avenue Yiddish theatre scene...
's The Golem under conductor Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...
. She returned to the company twice in the next two months to reprise the roles of Susannah and Monica (with Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian
Lili Chookasian is an American contralto who has appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties...
as Madame Flora). Shortly thereafter she appeared as Marsinah in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera was an American theatre/opera company in Los Angeles, California. Founded under the motto "Light Opera in the Grand Opera manner" in 1938 by impresario Edwin Lester, the organization presented fifty seasons of theatre before closing due to financial reasons in...
's 1962 revival of Kismet
Kismet (musical)
Kismet is a musical with lyrics and musical adaptation by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Alexander Borodin, and a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, based on Kismet, the 1911 play by Edward Knoblock...
which started in Los Angeles and then toured the United States. She also appeared as Carrie Pipperidge in a 1962 recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's Carousel
Carousel (musical)
Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline...
with Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.-Biography:Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College...
as Billy and Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters
Roberta Peters is an American coloratura soprano.One of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera, Peters is noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York...
as Julie Jordan.
In March 1964 Venora made her first appearance at New York City's Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
giving a recital of mostly contemporary American works with accompianist David Garvey. She returned to the NYCO later that month to portray the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
. She went on to portray roles in two Lincoln Center Revivals: Tutptim in The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
(1964, with Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...
as Anna) and again Marsinah in Kismet (1965); both of which were recorded. She made one last appearance at the NYCO in 1966, portraying Cio-Cio-San to the Pinkerton of Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
. In November 1968 she portrayed Mimì to the Rodolfo of John Stewart
John Stewart (tenor)
John Harger Stewart is an American tenor, conductor, and voice teacher who had an active international singing career in concerts and operas from 1964 to 1990. He began his career singing regularly with the Santa Fe Opera from the mid 1960s through the early 1970s; after which he appeared only...
at the San Diego Opera
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California and is a member of OPERA America. It was founded in 1950 to present productions by San Francisco Opera in the San Diego area...
.