Eleanor Steber
Encyclopedia
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.
on July 17, 1914. She was the daughter of William Charles Steber, Sr. (1888–1966) and Ida Amelia (née Nolte) Steber (1885–1985). She had two younger siblings – William Charles Steber, Jr. (1917–2002) and Lucile Steber Leslie (1918–1999). She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
in 1940 and was one of its leading artists through 1961. She was known for her large, flexible silvery voice, particularly in the high-lying soprano roles of Richard Strauss
. She was equally well-known for her lyrical portrayals of Mozart
's heroines, many in collaboration with conductor Bruno Walter
. Beyond Mozart and Strauss her repertoire was quite varied. She was noted for success in the music of Wagner
, Alban Berg
, Giacomo Puccini
and also in French opera. Steber sang the lead in the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa
by Samuel Barber
. She was also featured in a number of Metropolitan Opera premieres, including Strauss's Arabella
, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
, and Berg's Wozzeck
.
Outside the Metropolitan her career included a 1953 engagement at the Bayreuth
Wagner Festival, where her performance as Elsa in Lohengrin
was highly acclaimed and recorded by Decca Records
. She sang with Arturo Toscanini
in his 1944 NBC Symphony broadcast of Beethoven
's Fidelio
. In 1954 at the Florence May Festival she sang a celebrated performance of Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West
with conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. With Serge Koussevitzky
and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
she sang the world premiere in 1948 of Samuel Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915, a work which she commissioned.
Beyond the opera, Steber was popular with radio and television audiences in frequent appearances on The Voice of Firestone
, The Bell Telephone Hour
and other programs. Her extensive recording output included many popular ballads and operetta tunes in addition to arias, art songs and complete operas. Steber's sense of fun and adventure endeared her to audiences across the spectrum. In the 1970s she even recorded an album for RCA
of songs and arias at the Continental Baths
in New York City where Bette Midler
was then a regular performer. At the same time she was still heard in recital at Carnegie Hall
and sang a noted late-career performance of Strauss's Four Last Songs
with James Levine
and the Cleveland Orchestra
.
While known as an artist of the highest standards, Steber also developed a reputation for high living off the operatic stage. Some critics have observed that her reportedly tempestuous personal life eventually took a toll on her voice. In a well-known story, following a brilliant success in 1946 as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
at the Edinburgh Festival
, HMV Records engaged her to record some Mozart and other popular arias. By the account of Walter Susskind
, the conductor of both the Edinburgh performances and the proposed recordings, she arrived at the Abbey Road Studios
not feeling well, having been up most of the night. She could not sing her standard arias, saying "I don't feel like singing that." Susskind, trying to save the recording session, asked, "What do you feel like singing?". Steber thought for a moment and said, "Let's try 'Depuis le jour
'" (from Louise
). Orchestra parts were found and the disc was cut in one take. It became a famous recording of the aria, revealing a superb lyrical vocal line and an eloquent interpretation.
Upon retiring from singing, Steber taught on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music
and the Juilliard School
and maintained a private voice studio. She established the Eleanor Steber Vocal Foundation with an annual contest to assist young singers in launching their careers. Steber stands as one of America's greatest native-born and trained operatic sopranos. Her many recordings are still available, as are audio and visual tapes of her radio and television broadcasts for The Voice of Firestone
.
She died on October 3, 1990, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania
following heart valve surgery
and is interred at Greenwood Cemetery
in her native Wheeling, West Virginia.
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...
. 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
Eleanor Steber was born in Wheeling, West VirginiaWheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
on July 17, 1914. She was the daughter of William Charles Steber, Sr. (1888–1966) and Ida Amelia (née Nolte) Steber (1885–1985). She had two younger siblings – William Charles Steber, Jr. (1917–2002) and Lucile Steber Leslie (1918–1999). She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in 1940 and was one of its leading artists through 1961. She was known for her large, flexible silvery voice, particularly in the high-lying soprano roles of 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...
. She was equally well-known for her lyrical portrayals of 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 heroines, many in collaboration with conductor Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
. Beyond Mozart and Strauss her repertoire was quite varied. She was noted for success in the music of 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...
, Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born 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...
and also in French opera. Steber sang the lead in the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa
Vanessa (opera)
Vanessa is an opera in three acts by Samuel Barber with an original English libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. It was composed in 1956–1957 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 15, 1958 under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos in a production designed by...
by Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
. She was also featured in a number of Metropolitan Opera premieres, including Strauss's Arabella
Arabella
Arabella is a lyric comedy or opera in 3 acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. It was first performed on 1 July 1933, at the Dresden Sächsisches Staatstheater....
, Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
, and Berg's Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
.
Outside the Metropolitan her career included a 1953 engagement at the Bayreuth
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
Wagner Festival, where her performance as Elsa in Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
was highly acclaimed and recorded by Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
. She sang with Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
in his 1944 NBC Symphony broadcast of 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...
. In 1954 at the Florence May Festival she sang a celebrated performance of Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
with conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. With Serge Koussevitzky
Serge Koussevitzky
Serge Koussevitzky , was a Russian-born Jewish conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.-Early career:...
and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
she sang the world premiere in 1948 of Samuel Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915, a work which she commissioned.
Beyond the opera, Steber was popular with radio and television audiences in frequent appearances on The Voice of Firestone
The Voice of Firestone
The Voice of Firestone, is a long-running radio and television program of classical music. The show featured leading singers in selections from opera and operetta. Originally titled The Firestone Hour, it was first broadcast on the NBC Radio network December 3, 1928 and was later also shown on...
, The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television...
and other programs. Her extensive recording output included many popular ballads and operetta tunes in addition to arias, art songs and complete operas. Steber's sense of fun and adventure endeared her to audiences across the spectrum. In the 1970s she even recorded an album for RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
of songs and arias at the Continental Baths
Continental Baths
In 1968, Steve Ostrow opened the Continental Baths in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel in New York City. Continental Baths was advertised as reminiscent of "the glory of ancient Rome."-Facilities:...
in New York City where Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
was then a regular performer. At the same time she was still heard 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....
and sang a noted late-career performance of Strauss's Four Last Songs
Four Last Songs
The Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra were the final completed works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84. Strauss did not live to hear the premiere, given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by the soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the...
with James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
and the Cleveland Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
.
While known as an artist of the highest standards, Steber also developed a reputation for high living off the operatic stage. Some critics have observed that her reportedly tempestuous personal life eventually took a toll on her voice. In a well-known story, following a brilliant success in 1946 as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
, HMV Records engaged her to record some Mozart and other popular arias. By the account of Walter Susskind
Walter Susskind
Jan Walter Susskind was a Czech-born British conductor.-Biography:Susskind was born in Prague, Austria–Hungary, now the Czech Republic. His father was a Viennese music critic and his Czech mother was a piano teacher. At the State Conservatorium he studied under composer Josef Suk, the son-in-law...
, the conductor of both the Edinburgh performances and the proposed recordings, she arrived at the Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
not feeling well, having been up most of the night. She could not sing her standard arias, saying "I don't feel like singing that." Susskind, trying to save the recording session, asked, "What do you feel like singing?". Steber thought for a moment and said, "Let's try 'Depuis le jour
Depuis le jour
Depuis le jour may refer to :*Depuis le jour is an 1899 encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on the education of the clergy.*Depuis le jour is the most famous aria from the 1900 opera Louise....
'" (from Louise
Louise (opera)
Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
). Orchestra parts were found and the disc was cut in one take. It became a famous recording of the aria, revealing a superb lyrical vocal line and an eloquent interpretation.
Upon retiring from singing, Steber taught on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music
The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States and is overseen by president Joel Smirnoff and Adrian Daly, dean....
and the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
and maintained a private voice studio. She established the Eleanor Steber Vocal Foundation with an annual contest to assist young singers in launching their careers. Steber stands as one of America's greatest native-born and trained operatic sopranos. Her many recordings are still available, as are audio and visual tapes of her radio and television broadcasts for The Voice of Firestone
The Voice of Firestone
The Voice of Firestone, is a long-running radio and television program of classical music. The show featured leading singers in selections from opera and operetta. Originally titled The Firestone Hour, it was first broadcast on the NBC Radio network December 3, 1928 and was later also shown on...
.
She died on October 3, 1990, in Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Langhorne is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,622 at the 2010 census.The name "Langhorne" is used broadly to describe the majority of surrounding Middletown Township, which for the most part uses Langhorne's zip code of 19047...
following heart valve surgery
Cardiac surgery
Cardiovascular surgery is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart...
and is interred at Greenwood Cemetery
Greenwood Cemetery, West Virginia
Greenwood Cemetery is the largest, non-Roman Catholic cemetery in Ohio County, West Virginia, United States. It is located at 1526 National Road in Wheeling. The cemetery is maintained and operated by the Greenwood Cemetery Association. Several notable Wheeling families and natives including United...
in her native Wheeling, West Virginia.
Personal life
Steber struggled at times with asthma and alcoholism. She was married twice. Her first husband was Edwin Lee Bilby. Her second husband was Colonel Gordon Andrews, whom she married in 1958, at the time she created the role of Vanessa at the Metropolitan Opera. Andrews managed her career and started the STAND record company, a joint venture that produced numerous recordings of Steber's performances. They were married for nine years, and she had three step children: Marsha Andrews, an opera singer who studied with her at the Cleveland Institute of Music and in New York; Gordon Andrews Jr., retiree from GM; and Michelle Andrews Oesterle, a choral conductor.Selected discography
- Eleanor Steber sings Richard Strauss; VAI Audio; Karl Böhm (1st work), James Levine (2nd work, encore), conductors. Recorded: Munich, June 4, 1953, (1st work); Cleveland, May 5, 1970 (2nd work, encore)
- Eleanor Steber sings Mozart – Selections Voice of Firestone; VAI Audio; Robert Lawrence (1st–6th works), Wilfred Pelletier (7th) or Howard Barlow (8th–10th), conductor. Recorded Apr., 1960 (1st–6th works); from Voice of Firestone radio broadcasts, 1946–1952 (remainder).
- Eleanor Steber, her first recordings (1940); VAI Audio; Wilfrid Pelletier, conductor; Recorded May 30–31, 1940 and June 25–26, 1940, Town Hall, New York City; and June 17, 1940, Academy of Music, Philadelphia.
- The Eleanor Steber Collection. Vol. 1, The Early Career, 1938–1951; Armand Tokatyan (3rd and 5th works); George Cehanovsky (6th work); Leonard Warren (6th work); Recorded 1938–1951.
- Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Columbia Masterworks). Dumbarton Oaks Chamber Orchestra, William Strickland, conductor. Recorded November 7, 1950.
- Lohengrin; Teldec; Bayreuth Festival; Josef Keilberth, conductor. Live 1953.
- Vanessa; RCA Victor Gold Seal; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus ; Dmitri Mitropoulos, conductor; Recorded February and April 1958 in Manhattan Center.
- Madama Butterfly; Sony Classical (Columbia originally); Jean Madeira, Suzuki ; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus; "1949 Metropolitan Opera Association Production".
Sources
- Steber, Eleanor by Martin Bernheimer, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of OperaNew Grove Dictionary of OperaThe New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7 - Peter G. Davis in his book American Opera Singers offers a fine portrait of Steber.
- Eleanor Steber: an autobiography with Marcia Sloat; Wordsworth, 1992.
- He loves me when I sing: remembering Eleanor Steber; Judith Buffington and other friends; Cottrell Printing, 1993.
- Mozart: Eight Operatic Arias for the Soprano Voice by Rita Beatie. G. Schirmer, Inc. 80 pages. This compilation, authored by one of Steber's students, provides annotated music scores documenting Steber's interpretations of eight Mozart arias.
External links
- Biography at Subito-cantabile.de. Includes photos and discography.
- Steber rendition of "Just a-Wearyin' for You" by Carrie Jacobs-BondCarrie Jacobs-BondCarrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular sheet music from the 1890s through the early 1940s....
(1862–1946) - Steber rendition of "Morning" w. Frank Lebby StantonFrank Lebby StantonFrank Lebby Stanton—born February 22, 1857 in Charleston, South Carolina, died January 7, 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia, and frequently credited as Frank L. Stanton, Frank Stanton or F. L...
(1857–1927) m. Oley SpeaksOley SpeaksOley Speaks was an accomplished composer and songwriter who was born in Canal Winchester, Franklin County, Ohio...
(1874–1948) - Eleanor Steber Photographs, circa 1935–1977 from UBdigit – Digital Collections – University at Buffalo Libraries