Phyllis Curtin
Encyclopedia
Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano
who had an active career in opera
s and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd
opera Susannah
, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights
, and in other works by this composer. She was a dedicated song recitalist and retired from singing in 1984.
, Curtin studied singing with Olga Averino
at Wellesley College where she earned a bachelors degree in international relations. She pursued graduate studies in vocal performance under Boris Goldovsky
at the New England Conservatory. In 1946 she made her professional opera debut with Goldovsky's opera company, the New England Opera Theater
, as Tatyana in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
's Eugene Onegin
. She sang several more roles with the company over the next seven years, including a much admired portrayal of Countess Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's The Marriage of Figaro
(1947). In 1950, Curtin performed in the inaugural year of the Peabody Mason Concerts in Boston.
In 1953 Curtin joined the roster of principal sopranos at the New York City Opera
at the invitation of Joseph Rosenstock
. She made her debut with the company on October 22, 1953 portraying three roles (Fraulein Burstner, Frau Grubach, and Leni) in the United States premiere of Gottfried von Einem
's The Trial. She remained committed to the NYCO through 1960, where her roles included Alice Ford in Falstaff
, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Countess Almaviva, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida
, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte
, Frau Fluth in The Merry Wives of Windsor
, Katharina in Vittorio Giannini
's The Taming of the Shrew, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail
, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande
, Norina in Don Pasquale
, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus
, Violetta in La traviata
, and the title role in Salome
. She also sang two roles in operas by Carlisle Floyd
with the NYCO that she had previously created in their world premieres: the title role Susannah
(which she sang at Florida State University
for its 1955 world premiere) and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights
(which she sang at the Santa Fe Opera
for its 1958 premiere).
Curtin was also active as a guest artist with numerous opera companies during the 1950s. Since 1953 she appeared with some frequency at the Royal Opera, London
at Covent Garden
. She also sang the role of Thérèse in the American premiere of Francis Poulenc
's Les mamelles de Tirésias
at Brandeis University
(BU) in 1953. She returned to BU two years later to portray the title role in Darius Milhaud
's Médée. In 1956 she toured the United States with the NBC Opera Company as Countess Almaviva with Walter Cassel
as the Count, Adelaide Bishop
as Sussana, Ralph Herbert as Figaro, and Frances Bible
as Cherubino. In 1957 she sang the role of Elena in Christoph Willibald Gluck
's Paride ed Elena
with the American Opera Society
. In 1958 she sang Susannah at the Brussels World's Fair. In the 1959-1960 season she sang two roles with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
: Rosalinde and Susannah. In 1959 she made her debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
at the Glyndebourne Festival. She also made appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, the Cincinnati Opera
, the Tanglewood Music Festival
, and appeared in concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
, the New York Philharmonic
, the Philadelphia Orchestra
, and The Little Orchestra Society
during the 1950s.
from 1960–1961, including Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly
, Fiordiligi, Salome, and Violetta. In 1961 she made her debuts at the Oper Frankfurt, the Staatsoper Stuttgart
, and the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi. She made her first appearance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
in 1965 and her debut at the Seattle Opera
in 1969. In 1966 she appeared in the world premiere of Milhaud's La mère coupable
at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
. In 1968 she sang Mimì in La bohème
at the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
with Richard Tucker
as Rodolfo, Ron Bottcher
as Marcello, and Joan Sena as Musetta. She also returned several times to the Glyndebourne Festival in the 1960s. Other guest appearances included performances at the Scottish Opera
(as Marguerite in Faust
and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes
) and La Scala
.
Curtin made her Metropolitan Opera
debut on November 4, 1961 as Fiordiligi to the Ferrando of George Shirley
, Dorabella of Rosalind Elias
, Guglielmo of Theodor Uppman
, Despina of Roberta Peters
, and Don Alfonso of Frank Guarrera
. She returned frequently as a guest artist at the Met, appearing in such roles as Alice Ford, Countess Almaviva, Donna Anna, Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes
, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
, Rosalinde, Salome, and Violetta. Her last Met appearance was on July 6, 1973 in the title role of Giacomo Puccini
's Tosca
with Enrico Di Giuseppe
as Cavaradossi, Morley Meredith as Scarpia, and Ignace Strasfogel conducting.
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, Curtin continues to teach a series of masterclasses at the school each semester. Her most famous pupil is the legendary American soprano Cheryl Studer
.
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.
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."
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...
who had an active career in 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...
s and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the 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...
opera 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...
, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (opera)
Wuthering Heights is an opera in a prologue and three acts with music and a libretto by Carlisle Floyd. The work is adapted from Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. The opera premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 16, 1958 in a production directed by Irving Guttman...
, and in other works by this composer. She was a dedicated song recitalist and retired from singing in 1984.
Education and early career
Born Phyllis Smith in Clarksburg, West VirginiaClarksburg, West Virginia
Clarksburg is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, in the north-central region of the state. It is the principal city of the Clarksburg, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area...
, Curtin studied singing with Olga Averino
Olga Averino
Olga Averino was a Russian soprano and voice teacher. An émigré to the United States, she was prominent in the musical life of Boston for over 60 years, first as a singer and later as a distinguished voice teacher....
at Wellesley College where she earned a bachelors degree in international relations. She pursued graduate studies in vocal performance under Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky was a Russian conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America...
at the New England Conservatory. In 1946 she made her professional opera debut with Goldovsky's opera company, the New England Opera Theater
New England Opera Theater
The New England Opera Theatre was an American opera company that was active from 1945 to 1985. Founded by Boris Goldovsky in January 1945, the company was originally based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was initially established under the sponsorship of the New England Conservatory as a training...
, as Tatyana in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
. She sang several more roles with the company over the next seven years, including a much admired portrayal of Countess Almaviva 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 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...
(1947). In 1950, Curtin performed in the inaugural year of the Peabody Mason Concerts in Boston.
In 1953 Curtin joined the roster of principal sopranos 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...
at the invitation of Joseph Rosenstock
Joseph Rosenstock
Joseph Rosenstock was a Polish Jewish conductor.-Early years:He worked at the State Opera in Wiesbaden before being brought into the Metropolitan Opera in New York to replace Artur Bodanzky in 1928...
. She made her debut with the company on October 22, 1953 portraying three roles (Fraulein Burstner, Frau Grubach, and Leni) in the United States premiere of Gottfried von Einem
Gottfried von Einem
Gottfried von Einem was an Austrian composer. He is known chiefly for his operas influenced by the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as by jazz. He also composed pieces for piano, violin and organ.-Biography:...
's The Trial. She remained committed to the NYCO through 1960, where her roles included Alice Ford in 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...
, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Countess Almaviva, Cressida in Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida (opera)
Troilus and Cressida is the first of the two operas by William Walton. The libretto was by Christopher Hassall, his own first opera libretto, based on Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde...
, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Frau Fluth in The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera)
The Merry Wives of Windsor is an opera in three acts by Otto Nicolai to a German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, based on the play The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare....
, Katharina in Vittorio Giannini
Vittorio Giannini
Vittorio Giannini was a neoromantic American composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works.-Life and work:...
's The Taming of the Shrew, Konstanze in 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...
, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
, Norina in 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 ....
, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, Violetta in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, and the title role in Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
. She also sang two roles in operas by 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...
with the NYCO that she had previously created in their world premieres: the title role 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...
(which she sang at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
for its 1955 world premiere) and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (opera)
Wuthering Heights is an opera in a prologue and three acts with music and a libretto by Carlisle Floyd. The work is adapted from Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. The opera premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 16, 1958 in a production directed by Irving Guttman...
(which she sang at the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
for its 1958 premiere).
Curtin was also active as a guest artist with numerous opera companies during the 1950s. Since 1953 she appeared with some frequency at the Royal Opera, London
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. She also sang the role of Thérèse in the American premiere of 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 Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les mamelles de Tirésias is a surrealist two-act opéra bouffe by Francis Poulenc, based on the play of the same title by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was written in 1903 but first performed in 1917...
at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
(BU) in 1953. She returned to BU two years later to portray the title role in Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
's Médée. In 1956 she toured the United States with the NBC Opera Company as Countess Almaviva with Walter Cassel
Walter Cassel
Walter Cassel was a renowned American operatic baritone and actor. He began his career singing on the radio during the mid 1930s and appeared in a couple of Hollywood musical films in the late 1930s. He made his first stage appearances in a handful of Broadway productions during the late 1930s and...
as the Count, Adelaide Bishop
Adelaide Bishop
Adelaide Bishop was an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, opera director, stage director, and voice teacher. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals as a teenager during the early 1940s...
as Sussana, Ralph Herbert as Figaro, and 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...
as Cherubino. In 1957 she sang the role of Elena in Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Paride ed Elena
Paride ed Elena
Paride ed Elena is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the third and final of his Italian reformist works, following Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. Like its predecessors, its libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The opera tells the story of the events between the Judgment of Paris and...
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...
. In 1958 she sang Susannah at the Brussels World's Fair. In the 1959-1960 season she sang two roles with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius...
: Rosalinde and Susannah. In 1959 she made her debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
at the Glyndebourne Festival. She also made appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, 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:...
, the Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
, and appeared in concerts with 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...
, 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"...
, the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
, and The Little Orchestra Society
The Little Orchestra Society
The Little Orchestra Society is an American orchestra based in New York City. It was founded in 1947 by Thomas Scherman, who served as its conductor until his death in 1979. Since 1979, the conductor has been Dino Anagnost. Its membership has ranged between 45 and 60 musicians...
during the 1950s.
Later career
After the close of the 1959-1960 season, Curtin left the employ of the NYCO, although she would continue to perform as a guest artist with the company up through 1976. She sang Fiordiligi for the NBC Television Opera Theatre in 1960. She sang several roles at the Vienna State OperaVienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
from 1960–1961, including Cio-Cio-San in 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...
, Fiordiligi, Salome, and Violetta. In 1961 she made her debuts at the Oper Frankfurt, the Staatsoper Stuttgart
Staatsoper Stuttgart
The Staatsoper Stuttgart is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, Germany.-History:The Stuttgart Staatsoper forms part of the Stuttgart State Theatre , which is a a three-branch-theatre complex and represents the largest theatre of its kind in Europe...
, and the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi. She made her first appearance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
in 1965 and her debut at the Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera
The Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often...
in 1969. In 1966 she appeared in the world premiere of Milhaud's La mère coupable
La mère coupable
La mère coupable is an opera in three acts, op.412, by Darius Milhaud to a libretto by Madeleine Milhaud after the last play in Beaumarchais’ Figaro trilogy. It premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Genève on June 13, 1966.-Roles:-References:*...
at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in...
. In 1968 she sang Mimì in 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...
at the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
The Philadelphia Grand Opera Company was the name of four different American opera companies active at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the twentieth century. The last and most well known of the four was founded in November 1954 with the merger of the Philadelphia Civic...
with Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor.-Early life:Tucker was born Rivn Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first...
as Rodolfo, Ron Bottcher
Ron Bottcher
Ron Bottcher was an American operatic baritone who was actively performing with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s. A native of Sandpoint, Idaho, he earned music degrees from the University of Montana and the Curtis Institute of Music...
as Marcello, and Joan Sena as Musetta. She also returned several times to the Glyndebourne Festival in the 1960s. Other guest appearances included performances at the Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
(as Marguerite in Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
) and La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
.
Curtin made her 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...
debut on November 4, 1961 as Fiordiligi to the Ferrando of 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...
, Dorabella of Rosalind Elias
Rosalind Elias
Rosalind Elias is an American mezzo-soprano, a rich-voiced singer of fine musicianship who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.-Life and career:...
, Guglielmo of Theodor Uppman
Theodor Uppman
Theodor Uppman was an American operatic baritone. He is best known for his creation of the title role in Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd....
, Despina of 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...
, and Don Alfonso of Frank Guarrera
Frank Guarrera
Frank Guarrera was an Italian-American lyric baritone who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera, singing with the company for a total of 680 performances. He performed 35 different roles at the Met, mostly from the Italian and French repertories, from 1948 through 1976...
. She returned frequently as a guest artist at the Met, appearing in such roles as Alice Ford, Countess Almaviva, Donna Anna, Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
, Rosalinde, Salome, and Violetta. Her last Met appearance was on July 6, 1973 in the title role of 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 Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
with Enrico Di Giuseppe
Enrico Di Giuseppe
Enrico Di Giuseppe was a celebrated Italian-American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling concurrent performance contracts with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan...
as Cavaradossi, Morley Meredith as Scarpia, and Ignace Strasfogel conducting.
Teaching
Curtin taught at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and is Artistic Advisor at the Opera Institute at the Boston University College of Fine Arts
Boston University College of Fine Arts
The Boston University College of Fine Arts is unit of Boston University. The College consists of the School of Music, the School of Theatre, and the School of Visual Arts. Each of the individual schools offer degrees in the performing and visual arts at the undergraduate and graduate level...
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
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
.
As professor Emeritus at Boston University's Opera Institute, Curtin continues to teach a series of masterclasses at the school each semester. Her most famous pupil is the legendary American soprano Cheryl Studer
Cheryl Studer
Cheryl Studer is a Grammy Award winning American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's major opera houses. A singer with unusual versatility, Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated with lyric sopranos and...
.
Video and audio recordings
In 1995, VAI released, on compact discs, the 1962 performance of Susannah, from New Orleans, which co-starred Norman TreigleNorman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
and Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
. 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
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...
program, "Opera: Two to Six". Curtin is seen in staged excerpts from Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
. Her colleagues in this telecast included Dame Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
, Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi
Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation.-Biography:Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa and studied law at the University of Padua before he trained as a singer. Giulio Crimi, a well-known Italian tenor of a previous generation, was Gobbi's teacher in Rome...
, Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda is a Swedish operatic tenor. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely recorded tenor in history...
, Jerome Hines
Jerome Hines
The American Jerome A. Hines was a basso opera singer who performed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1987...
, Mildred Miller
Mildred Miller
Mildred Miller is an American classical mezzo-soprano who had a major career performing in operas, concerts, and recitals during the mid twentieth century. She was notably a principal artist at the Metropolitan Opera from 1951 through 1974...
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
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 harrowing War Requiem
War Requiem
The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...
. This 1963 performance by 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...
conducted by Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
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 tutteCosì fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
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
Martin Bernheimer
Martin Bernheimer is an American music critic. He studied at Brown University and the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, along with the famous musicologist Gustave Reese at New York University....
.
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."