Rose Bampton
Encyclopedia
Rose Bampton was a celebrated American opera singer who had an active international career during the 1930s and 1940s. She began her professional career performing mostly minor roles from the mezzo-soprano
repertoire in 1929 but later switched to singing primarily leading soprano
roles in 1937 until her retirement from the opera stage in 1963. She notably had a lengthy and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City, singing there for eighteen consecutive seasons between 1932 and 1950. Her greatest successes were from the dramatic soprano
repertoire, particularly in operas by Richard Wagner
. Not a stranger to the concert repertoire, Bampton was particularly known for her performances of works by Alban Berg
, Arnold Schoenberg
, and her friend Samuel Barber
, notably having performed their compositions with the composers accompanying her in concert.
just outside of Cleveland, Bampton grew up in Buffalo, New York
. She entered Drake University
in Des Moines, Iowa
where she initially began training as a soprano but was redirected by her voice teacher into the mezzo-soprano repertoire after a serious bout of laryngitis
. Shortly after graduating with a bachelors degree, Bampton made her professional opera debut as Siebel in Gounod's Faust
at the Chautauqua Opera
in 1929. Her performance was positively received and she was invited to perform at the Worcester Music Festival
in Worcester, Massachusetts
that summer.
In the fall of 1929 Bampton moved to Philadelphia after being offered a contract to join the roster of singers at the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company
(PGOC) where she sang mostly comprimario
roles over the next three years. Bampton made her PGOC debut as Mercédès in Georges Bizet
's Carmen
on October 23, 1929 with a cast that included Sophie Braslau
as Carmen, Ralph Errolle as Don José, Chief Caupolican as Escamillo, and Henri Elkan conducting. Her other roles with the company included, Mistress Bentson in Lakmé
(1929), Feodor in Boris Godunov
with Georges Baklanoff
in the title role (1929), Mama Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana
(1929, 1931), Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor
(1930), the shepherd boy in Tosca
(1930, 1932), Myrtale in Thaïs
(1930, 1932), the first maid in Elektra
with Charlotte Boerner as Chrysothemis (1931, 1932), Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde
with Paul Althouse
as Tristan (1932), Wellgunde in both Das Rheingold
and Götterdämmerung
(1932), and Waltraute in Die Walküre
(1932).
While performing at the PGOC, Bampton entered the Curtis Institute of Music
in 1930 to pursue graduate studies in singing where her voice teachers included Horatio Connell and Queena Mario. She also had the opportunity to attend masterclasses given by Lotte Lehmann
. While at Curtis she developed a friendship with fellow students, composers Samuel Barber
and Gian Carlo Menotti
. Barber notably recruited her to sing in the New York premiere of his vocal chamber work Dover Beach in 1933. Bampton also sang several times with the Philadelphia Orchestra
in the early 1930s under the baton of Leopold Stokowski
. With the orchestra she notably sang the Wood-Dove in the United States premiere of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder
(1932), was the soloist for a performance of Manuel de Falla
's El amor brujo
(1932), and sang the role of Kundry in a concert version of Parsifal
(1933) among other performances. Bampton also made several appearances at the Bethlehem Bach Festival during the early 1930s.
A recording of Bampton's performance of the Gurre-Lieder with the Philadelphia Orchestra reached the ears of Giulio Gatti-Casazza
, then General Director of the Metropolitan Opera. Impressed with her performance, he contacted Bampton to come and audition for the company. She obliged and ended up being offered a Met contract. According to Opera News
, Bampton initially hesitated to accept the invite as "she had doubts as to whether her true vocal range was mezzo or soprano and was concerned about her lack of stage experience." However, she relented and made her first appearance with the company for an out of town engagement in Philadelphia on November 22, 1932 as Laura Adorno in La Gioconda
with Rosa Ponselle
in the title role, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
as Enzo, and Giuseppe Sturani
conducting.
and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde
. During these years she began a romantic relationship with noted Canadian conductor and pianist Wilfrid Pelletier
(1896–1982) who was a regular conductor at the Met. The couple married in 1937 and, although happily married, never had children.
By the year of her marriage, Bampton was feeling highly frustrated with her lack of good roles at the Met. She therefore decided to establish herself in the soprano repertoire, beginning with a portrayal of Leonora in Il Trovatore
at the Met on May 7, 1937 with Arthur Carron
as Manrico. Her Met career at the Met flourished after this point with her roles at the house over the next thirteen years including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Elsa in Lohengrin
, Kundry, and the title roles in Gluck's Alceste
and Verdi's Aida among others. Her most frequent role at the house was Sieglinde in Die Walküre, which she sang twenty-one times in New York and on tour, often to the Siegmund of Lauritz Melchior
. In January 1940 she showed an incredible level of musical versatility when she sang performances of both Aida and Amneris within a week of each other at the Met. Her last and 112th performance at the house was as Elsa on April 17, 1950 with Set Svanholm
in the title role and Fritz Stiedry
conducting.
In addition to singing at the Met, Bampton sang with many other opera companies throughout the world during the 1930s and 1940s, including performances in Europe and South America. In 1936-1937 she toured Germany
and Czechoslovakia
in concerts. She made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera
as Leonora in 1936, and that same year appeared at the Semperoper
in Dresden
. In 1937 she made her only appearance at the Royal Opera
at Covent Garden
as Amneris. That same year she began a decade-long association at the Civic Opera House
in Chicago
, singing first with the Chicago City Opera Company
and later the Chicago Opera Company
. Some of her more acclaimed portrayals in Chicago included Maddalena in Andrea Chénier
, Sieglinde, and Elsa.
Between 1937 and 1939 Bampton toured England
, Holland, and Sweden
in concerts. She sang at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires
every year between 1942 and 1948, making her debut with the company as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss
's Der Rosenkavalier
. At the Teatro Colón she tackled several roles that she never performed anywhere else, most notably several heroines in Strauss operas (Daphne
, Chrysothemis
and Ariadne
), Eva in Die Meistersinger, Agathe in Der Freischütz
, and Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. In 1946 she appeared in operas at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro
. In 1949 she sang two roles at the San Francisco Opera
, Sieglinde and Donna Anna. In the Fall of 1950 she made her only appearance with the New York City Opera
singing the Marschallin.
Bampton also worked actively as a recitalist and concert performer during the 1930s and 1940s. She was a regular guest artist with the New York Philharmonic
(NYP) and other orchestras. A fruitful professional association with Arturo Toscanini
began in 1936, when Bampton sang in Debussy
's La damoiselle élue with the NYP, and included several broadcasts with the conductor and his NBC Symphony Orchestra
.
In 1944, she performed and recorded the role of Leonore for Toscanini's radio broadcast of Beethoven's opera Fidelio
. Others in the cast included Jan Peerce
and Eleanor Steber
. The performance, originally broadcast in two parts, each on a separate week, was released years later on LP and still later on CD. It was Toscanini's first radio broadcast of a virtually complete opera - all of the music was included, but all of the dialogue (except for the spoken melodrama
in the prison scene) was omitted.
at Mount Saint Mary College
in Newburgh, New York in 1963. She continued to perform sporadically in recitals and concerts into the early 1970s, arenas in which she had been well established since the beginning of her career. Her husband died in 1982 and she never remarried.
After her opera career ended, Bampton embarked on a second career as a voice teacher, serving for lengthy periods on the voice faculties of Manhattan School of Music
and the Juilliard School
(1974–1991). She also had shorter stints on the faculties at University of North Carolina School of the Arts
, Drake University
and Adelphi University
. She also frequently served as a vocal competition judge. At the time of her death, Bampton was a member of the boards of the Metropolitan Opera and the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation
. She was also an honorary chairman of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
repertoire in 1929 but later switched to singing primarily leading 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...
roles in 1937 until her retirement from the opera stage in 1963. She notably had a lengthy and fruitful partnership with 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 New York City, singing there for eighteen consecutive seasons between 1932 and 1950. Her greatest successes were from the dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
repertoire, particularly in operas by 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...
. Not a stranger to the concert repertoire, Bampton was particularly known for her performances of works by 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...
, Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, and her friend 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...
, notably having performed their compositions with the composers accompanying her in concert.
Early life and career: 1907-1932
Born in Lakewood, OhioLakewood, Ohio
Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area, and borders the city of Cleveland. The population was 52,131 at the 2010 making it the third largest city in Cuyahoga County, behind Cleveland and Parma .Lakewood, one of Cleveland's...
just outside of Cleveland, Bampton grew up in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. She entered Drake University
Drake University
Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....
in Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
where she initially began training as a soprano but was redirected by her voice teacher into the mezzo-soprano repertoire after a serious bout of laryngitis
Laryngitis
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds . Dysphonia is the medical term for a vocal disorder, of which laryngitis is one cause....
. Shortly after graduating with a bachelors degree, Bampton made her professional opera debut as Siebel in Gounod's 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...
at the Chautauqua Opera
Chautauqua Opera
The Chautauqua Opera is the resident summer opera company of the Chautauqua Institution. It is the oldest continuously active summer opera company in the U.S, having been founded in 1929, and it has produced several operas during the Institution's nine-week summer season every year since...
in 1929. Her performance was positively received and she was invited to perform at the Worcester Music Festival
Worcester Music Festival
Worcester Music Festival Is an annual music festival held in Worcester town centre during the 3rd week of August founded in 2008 by Chris Bennion as a platform to encourage live, local and original music in Worcester and the surrounding areas and is staged in over 30 pubs, clubs, cafes, and...
in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
that summer.
In the fall of 1929 Bampton moved to Philadelphia after being offered a contract to join the roster of singers 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...
(PGOC) where she sang mostly comprimario
Comprimario
A Comprimario is a supporting role in an opera. Derived from the Italian "con primario", or "with the primary", the term refers to a performer who sings small role pieces....
roles over the next three years. Bampton made her PGOC debut as Mercédès 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...
on October 23, 1929 with a cast that included Sophie Braslau
Sophie Braslau
Sophie Braslau was a contralto prominent in United States opera, starting with her debut in New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1913 when she was just 21 years of age....
as Carmen, Ralph Errolle as Don José, Chief Caupolican as Escamillo, and Henri Elkan conducting. Her other roles with the company included, Mistress Bentson in Lakmé
Lakmé
Lakmé is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Delibes wrote the score during 1881–82 with its first performance on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Set in British India in the mid 19th century, Lakmé is based on the 1880 novel...
(1929), Feodor in Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
with Georges Baklanoff
Georges Baklanoff
Georges Baklanoff was a Russian operatic baritone who had an active international career from 1903 until his death in 1938. Possessing a powerful and flexible voice, he sang roles from a wide variety of musical periods and in many languages...
in the title role (1929), Mama Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
(1929, 1931), Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
(1930), the shepherd boy in 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...
(1930, 1932), Myrtale in Thaïs
Thaïs (opera)
Thaïs is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel Thaïs by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on 16 March 1894, starring the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written the title role...
(1930, 1932), the first maid in Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
with Charlotte Boerner as Chrysothemis (1931, 1932), Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
with Paul Althouse
Paul Althouse
Paul Shearer Althouse was an American opera singer. He began his career as a lyric tenor with a robust Italianate sound, excelling in roles like Cavaradossi, Pinkerton, and Turiddu. He later branched out into the dramatic tenor repertoire, finding particular success in portraying Wagnerian heroes...
as Tristan (1932), Wellgunde in both Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
and Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
(1932), and Waltraute in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
(1932).
While performing at the PGOC, Bampton entered the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
in 1930 to pursue graduate studies in singing where her voice teachers included Horatio Connell and Queena Mario. She also had the opportunity to attend masterclasses given by Lotte Lehmann
Lotte Lehmann
Charlotte "Lotte" Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest...
. While at Curtis she developed a friendship with fellow students, composers 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...
and 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...
. Barber notably recruited her to sing in the New York premiere of his vocal chamber work Dover Beach in 1933. Bampton also sang several times with 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...
in the early 1930s under the baton of Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. With the orchestra she notably sang the Wood-Dove in the United States premiere of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder
Gurre-Lieder
Gurre-Lieder is a massive cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen...
(1932), was the soloist for a performance of Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
's El amor brujo
El amor brujo
El amor brujo is a piece of music originally composed by Manuel de Falla for a chamber group, then re-scored as a symphonic suite, and eventually as a ballet...
(1932), and sang the role of Kundry in a concert version of 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...
(1933) among other performances. Bampton also made several appearances at the Bethlehem Bach Festival during the early 1930s.
A recording of Bampton's performance of the Gurre-Lieder with the Philadelphia Orchestra reached the ears of Giulio Gatti-Casazza
Giulio Gatti-Casazza
Giulio Gatti-Casazza was an Italian opera manager. He was general manager of La Scala in Milan, Italy and later the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.-Life and career:...
, then General Director of the Metropolitan Opera. Impressed with her performance, he contacted Bampton to come and audition for the company. She obliged and ended up being offered a Met contract. According to Opera News
Opera News
Opera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
, Bampton initially hesitated to accept the invite as "she had doubts as to whether her true vocal range was mezzo or soprano and was concerned about her lack of stage experience." However, she relented and made her first appearance with the company for an out of town engagement in Philadelphia on November 22, 1932 as Laura Adorno in La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
with Rosa Ponselle
Rosa Ponselle
Rosa Ponselle , was an American operatic soprano with a large, opulent voice. She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered by music critics to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the past 100 years.-Early life:She was born Rosa Ponzillo on January 22, 1897,...
in the title role, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi was an Italian tenor with a lyric-dramatic voice of exceptional range and technical facility. He performed throughout Europe and the Americas in a top-class career that spanned 40 years....
as Enzo, and Giuseppe Sturani
Giuseppe Sturani
Giuseppe Sturani was an Italian conductor who was known for his work in the field of opera. Born in Ancona, Sturani worked as a conductor at La Fenice in Venice and the Teatro Regio in Turin before moving to the United States in 1908 to join the conducting staffs of two opera companies opperated...
conducting.
The Metropolitan Opera and international success: 1932-1950
Just six days after her Met debut in Philadelphia, Bampton made her first appearance at the actual Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, reprising the role of Laura. Over the next four years she sang mostly smaller role at the house: the Sandman in Hänsel und Gretel, Waltraute, Wellgunde, and the Voice from Above in Parsifal. The only two roles of more considerable size that she portrayed were, Amneris in AidaAida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
. During these years she began a romantic relationship with noted Canadian conductor and pianist Wilfrid Pelletier
Wilfrid Pelletier
Joseph Louis Wilfrid Pelletier , CC was a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and arts administrator. He was instrumental in establishing the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, serving as the orchestra's first artistic director and conductor from 1935-1941...
(1896–1982) who was a regular conductor at the Met. The couple married in 1937 and, although happily married, never had children.
By the year of her marriage, Bampton was feeling highly frustrated with her lack of good roles at the Met. She therefore decided to establish herself in the soprano repertoire, beginning with a portrayal of Leonora in Il Trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
at the Met on May 7, 1937 with Arthur Carron
Arthur Carron
Arthur Carron was an English operatic tenor.Carron was born in Swindon, United Kingdom. In his early career, he was also known as Arthur Cox....
as Manrico. Her Met career at the Met flourished after this point with her roles at the house over the next thirteen years including 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...
, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, 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...
, Kundry, and the title roles in Gluck's Alceste
Alceste
Alceste may refer to:*Alcestis, mythical Greek princess*Alceste De Ambris, Italian socialistLiterature:*Alcestis , by Euripides *Alceste, the queen and wife of the god of love in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women...
and Verdi's Aida among others. Her most frequent role at the house was Sieglinde in Die Walküre, which she sang twenty-one times in New York and on tour, often to the Siegmund of Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
. In January 1940 she showed an incredible level of musical versatility when she sang performances of both Aida and Amneris within a week of each other at the Met. Her last and 112th performance at the house was as Elsa on April 17, 1950 with Set Svanholm
Set Svanholm
Set Svanholm was a Swedish operatic tenor, considered the leading Tristan and Siegfried of the first decade following World War II....
in the title role and Fritz Stiedry
Fritz Stiedry
Fritz Stiedry was an Austrian conductor and composer.-Biography:While studying law at the University of Vienna, Stiedry's musical abilities were noticed by Gustav Mahler who appointed him his assistant at the Vienna Court Opera in 1907...
conducting.
In addition to singing at the Met, Bampton sang with many other opera companies throughout the world during the 1930s and 1940s, including performances in Europe and South America. In 1936-1937 she toured Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in concerts. She made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
as Leonora in 1936, and that same year appeared at the Semperoper
Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. In 1937 she made her only appearance at the Royal Opera
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...
as Amneris. That same year she began a decade-long association at the Civic Opera House
Civic Opera House (Chicago)
The Civic Opera House is an opera house located at 20 North Wacker Drive in Chicago. It is part of a building which contains a 45-story office tower and two 22-story wings. This structure opened on November 4, 1929 and has an Art Deco interior....
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, singing first with the Chicago City Opera Company
Chicago City Opera Company
The Chicago City Opera Company was a grand opera company in Chicago, organized from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Chicago Grand Opera Company, that produced four seasons of opera at the Civic Opera House from 1935 to 1939 before it too succumbed to financial difficulties...
and later the Chicago Opera Company
Chicago Opera Company
The Chicago Opera Company was a grand opera company in Chicago, organized from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Chicago City Opera Company, that produced six seasons of opera at the Civic Opera House from 1940 to 1946 . Fausto Cleva was artistic director 1944-1946, and until 1945 Fortune Gallo...
. Some of her more acclaimed portrayals in Chicago included Maddalena in Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, Sieglinde, and Elsa.
Between 1937 and 1939 Bampton toured England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Holland, and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in concerts. She sang at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
every year between 1942 and 1948, making her debut with the company as the Marschallin 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...
. At the Teatro Colón she tackled several roles that she never performed anywhere else, most notably several heroines in Strauss operas (Daphne
Daphne (opera)
Daphne is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, his 13th opera, subtitled "A Bucolic Tragedy in One Act". The German libretto was by Joseph Gregor. The opera is based loosely on a myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and also includes elements taken from The Bacchae by Euripides...
, Chrysothemis
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
and Ariadne
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...
), Eva in Die Meistersinger, Agathe in Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
, and Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. In 1946 she appeared in operas at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. In 1949 she sang two roles 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...
, Sieglinde and Donna Anna. In the Fall of 1950 she made her only appearance 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...
singing the Marschallin.
Bampton also worked actively as a recitalist and concert performer during the 1930s and 1940s. She was a regular guest artist 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) and other orchestras. A fruitful professional association 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...
began in 1936, when Bampton sang in Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's La damoiselle élue with the NYP, and included several broadcasts with the conductor and his NBC Symphony Orchestra
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
.
In 1944, she performed and recorded the role of Leonore for Toscanini's radio broadcast of Beethoven's opera 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...
. Others in the cast included Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....
and 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:...
. The performance, originally broadcast in two parts, each on a separate week, was released years later on LP and still later on CD. It was Toscanini's first radio broadcast of a virtually complete opera - all of the music was included, but all of the dialogue (except for the spoken melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
in the prison scene) was omitted.
Later life and career: 1950-2007
Bampton and her husband both decided to leave the Met when Rudolf Bing was appointed the company's new general manager in 1950. Bampton stated in a 1989 interview that, "Both of us got the feeling that we wouldn't be happy with the new regime." She continued to appear in operas into the early 1960s, although her opera schedule after 1950 was sparse in comparison to the schedule she kept in the 1930s and 1940s. Bampton's last opera performance was as Mme. de Croissy in Dialogues of the CarmelitesDialogues 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...
at Mount Saint Mary College
Mount Saint Mary College
Mount Saint Mary College is a private, co-educational, four-year liberal arts college, located in Newburgh in the mid-Hudson Valley region of New York State...
in Newburgh, New York in 1963. She continued to perform sporadically in recitals and concerts into the early 1970s, arenas in which she had been well established since the beginning of her career. Her husband died in 1982 and she never remarried.
After her opera career ended, Bampton embarked on a second career as a voice teacher, serving for lengthy periods on the voice faculties of Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
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...
(1974–1991). She also had shorter stints on the faculties at University of North Carolina School of the Arts
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts , formerly the North Carolina School of the Arts, is a public coeducational arts conservatory in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that grants high school, undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is one of the seventeen constituent campuses of the...
, Drake University
Drake University
Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....
and Adelphi University
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
. She also frequently served as a vocal competition judge. At the time of her death, Bampton was a member of the boards of the Metropolitan Opera and the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation
Sullivan Foundation
The Sullivan Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to finding, developing, and furthering the careers of promising opera singers within the United States. Founded in 1956 through the bequest of a prominent lawyer, William Matheus Sullivan, the foundation has awarded grants to close to...
. She was also an honorary chairman of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.