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Phyllis Curtin
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Phyllis Curtin (née Smith, on December 3, 1921) is an American soprano.
in was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia and studied at Wellesley College and the New England Conservatory. She made her operatic debut as The Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with the New England Opera Theater in 1946.
became a star of the New York City Opera, from 1953 and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1961, appearing in Salome, Die Fledermaus, La traviata, Peter Grimes, and other works.
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Encyclopedia
Phyllis Curtin (née Smith, on December 3, 1921) is an American soprano.
Education
Curtin was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia and studied at Wellesley College and the New England Conservatory. She made her operatic debut as The Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with the New England Opera Theater in 1946.
Roles
She became a star of the New York City Opera, from 1953 and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1961, appearing in Salome, Die Fledermaus, La traviata, Peter Grimes, and other works. She also appeared with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Sussex, UK) in the 1960s as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and with Scottish Opera as Marguerite in Faust and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes. She also appeared at the Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera and the Teatro Colón.
Curtin was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah and in other works by this composer. She was also a dedicated song recitalist and retired from singing in 1984.
Teaching
Curtin taught at Yale University and is Artistic Advisor at the Opera Institute at the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music, where she held a Deanship of the Schools for the Arts, as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Tanglewood Music Center.
As professor Emeritus at Boston University's Opera Institute, Ms. Curtin remains an engaging lecturer. She gives a series of masterclasses at the school each semester and on occasion will still demonstrate with what remains a remarkable instrument.
The standout among her numerous students is the legendary American soprano Cheryl Studer.
Video and audio recordings
In 1995, VAI released, on compact discs, the 1962 performance of Susannah, from New Orleans, which co-starred Norman Treigle and Richard Cassilly. VAI and other record companies have released other CDs featuring Curtin.
In 1988, Kultur published a video cassette recording of the 1968 The Bell Telephone Hour program, "Opera: Two to Six". Curtin is seen in staged excerpts from Faust and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Her colleagues in this telecast included Dame Joan Sutherland, Tito Gobbi, Nicolai Gedda, Jerome Hines, Mildred Miller and Charles Anthony. VAI later released several Bell Telephone Hour DVDs featuring Curtin.
And in 2007 VAI released a DVD featuring Curtin in the soprano role (i.e., the Latin text) in Benjamin Britten's harrowing War Requiem. This 1963 performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf at Tanglewood was the work's American premiere.
Tributes
The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan showed the 1956 NBC-TV production of Così fan tutte on January 19, 2008, 50 years after its original 1958 airing. Curtin portrays Fiordiligi in this production. The screening was followed by a conversation with the soprano and music critic Martin Bernheimer.
In the early 1970s, drivers traveling into Clarksburg on U.S. Route 50, were greeted by a sign, "Welcome to Clarksburg, the Home of Phyllis Curtin."
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