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(b Mostar, 1953). Bosnian-Herzegovinian soprano. Bakšić graduated from the Secondary Music School in Mostar. In 1976 she graduated from the Department for Music Theory and in 1979 from the Department for Solo-Singing at the Academy of Music in Sarajevo. She studied solo-singing in the class of the famous opera singer and professor Milica Buljubašić-Zečević. As a student she began to sing at the Music Scene of Sarajevo, first at the student concerts and then on the opera stage. In 1979 she made her début as Rosette in Manon. In 1981, at the very beginning of her career, she performed her first leading role as Floramye in the operette Little Floramye by Ivo Tijardović.

After graduating from the Department for Solo-Singing Bakšić passed the audition at the National Theatre Opera in Sarajevo and has since become a permanent soloist in the opera and operetta repertoire. Some of her leading roles include Rosette in ...

(b Baltimore, MD, Aug 9, 1912; d Oslo, Norway, March 13, 2009). American soprano. Born to a music-loving mother and prominent physician father whose grandparents were slaves, Brown premiered the role of Bess in the original production of Porgy and Bess (1935). She studied music, first at Morgan State College and then the Juilliard School, where she was the first African American to win the Margaret McGill scholarship. Brown learned of Gershwin’s new opera, then titled Porgy, while at Juilliard, and immediately requested an audition. She sang for Gershwin a few days later and left their meeting as Bess. Gershwin frequently invited Brown to his apartment to sing parts of the opera as he composed. As a result, Bess grew from a secondary character into one of the opera’s leading roles.

After the original Broadway run and tour of Porgy and Bess ended in 1936, Brown continued with her career in the DuBose Heyward musicals ...

(b Fort de France, Martinique, March 24, 1932; d New York, Sept 16, 2020). Martinique soprano. She studied in Paris, making her début in 1958 at Nice as Leïla (Les pêcheurs de perles). She sang Pamina at Aix-en-Provence (1959), Lakmé at the Opéra-Comique (1961), and made her début at the Paris Opéra (1962) as Fatima (Rameau’s Les Indes galantes). In 1964 she took part in the first public performance of Rameau’s Les boréades at La Maison de la Radio, Paris. In Chicago (1966–76) she sang Leïla, Stravinsky’s Nightingale, and Antonia (Les contes d’Hoffmann), and at Wexford Lakmé (1970) and Imogene in Il pirata (1976). Having sung Countess Almaviva with the Paris Opéra at the Metropolitan (1976), she made her début with the Metropolitan company as Konstanze (1980), and in Brussels (...

(Louise)

(b Detroit, MI, March 27, 1950; d Detroit, Jan 9, 2022). American mezzo-soprano and later soprano. Of Dutch, Sioux, Scottish, and African American ancestry, she studied at the Cleveland Institute (1968–70) with Eleanor Steber, and later with Jennie Tourel and O.G. Marzolla. While still a student, Ewing came to the attention of James Levine, which led to a dramatic debut under his direction at the Ravinia Festival in 1973. After appearances at Miami, Boston, Cologne, Chicago, and Santa Fe, Ewing performed Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Salzburg in 1976, followed by her Metropolitan debut in the same role. Ewing developed strong determined characters in her repertoire, including Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Mélisande in Debussy’s Pellias et Milisande, Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogues des carmélites, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and, perhaps most famously, the title role in Bizet’s Carmen. She also interpreted several complex 20th-century operatic roles, including Marie in Berg’s ...

(b Residence, LA, Nov 2, 1946; d New York, Oct 9, 2020). American soprano. She studied at Tulane University and in New York, and made her début in 1974 as Micaëla with the New York City Opera. She sang in Mayr’s Medea in Corinto at Berne in 1975, then joined the Bayerische Staatsoper; she also sang in Berlin, Brussels, Houston, Boston, Toronto, Venice, Florence, Strasbourg, Lyons, Toulouse, Aix-en-Provence, and at the Paris Opéra. Her repertory includes Countess Almaviva, Electra (Idomeneo), Donna Anna, Agathe, Desdemona, Leonora (Il trovatore and La forza del destino), Amelia (Il duca d’Alba), Norma, Julia (La vestale), Salome (Hérodiade), Anne Boleyn, Elsa, and Ariadne. She first sang at Covent Garden in 1987 as the Empress (Die Frau ohne Schatten), the role of her Metropolitan début in 1989, and returned to Covent Garden as Chrysothemis in ...

(b Sarajevo, Bosnia, June 30, 1947). Bosnian soprano, opera soloist, and music pedagogue. She graduated in 1973 from the Music Academy Sarajevo (class of Bruna Špiler), where she also took the master’s degree in the field of solo singing in 1977. During her artistic career she achieved notable success singing the main soprano roles in the operas Il trovatore (G. Verdi), Ero s onog svijeta (J. Gotovac), The Bartered Bride (B. Smetana), The Marriage of Figaro (W.A. Mozart), and Madam Butterfly and La Boheme (G. Puccini). Her artistic activity was interrupted due to the wartime events in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. Her actions were diverted to performances within small artistic ensembles, which corresponded to the conditions of the social and cultural life of that time. She distinguished herself in appearances at the concerts of the Sarajevo Winter Festival, Summer Chamber Music (1993), and Days of Culture of the Czech Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (...

(b Bratislava, Dec 23, 1946; d Zürich, Oct 18, 2021). Slovak soprano. She studied at the Bratislava Conservatory, as well as in Prague and Vienna. Her début was in 1968 in Bratislava as Rosina (Il barbiere), and two years later she was engaged for the Queen of Night at the Vienna Staatsoper. There she became a regular member of the company in 1972 and within a few years had established herself as one of the world’s leading coloratura sopranos. As the Queen of Night she made débuts at Glyndebourne in 1974 and at the Metropolitan in 1977, the year in which she first appeared at the Salzburg Festival, as Thibault (Don Carlos) under Karajan. Her other major successes included appearances as Zerbinetta, Gilda, Violetta, Lucia, Konstanze, Manon, Oscar, and Donna Anna (at La Scala in 1987). Gruberová featured prominently in the revival of Rossini and other bel canto operas, and made her Covent Garden début as Giulietta in Bellini’s ...

(Ann )

(b Canby, MN, Jan 4, 1947). American soprano. After studying at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (BM 1969), and with marion Freschel at the Juilliard School, she won first prizes in the Concert Artists Guild competition in 1970 and the Rockefeller and Minna Kaufmann Ruud competitions in 1972. She has appeared as a soloist with most of the major American orchestras, including the Baltimore SO, with which she toured East Germany, and the New York PO, with which she gave the premiere (under Pierre Boulez) of George Crumb’s Star-child (1977), a work commissioned for her by the Ford Foundation as a result of her winning its performance competition in 1971. She has also sung in Europe, with such orchestras as the Stuttgart RO and the Bavarian RO. In 1980 she won the Naumburg International Voice Competition, and the following year she made her opera debut as Mimì with Opera St. Paul (Minnesota), in addition to giving her first recitals at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center; since then she has been increasingly active as a recitalist. Gubrud’s wide expressive range and sure technique allow her to meet the demands of music from all periods. She has recorded widely on a variety of labels and has been a regular participant in the Aspen, Blossom, and Meadowbrook festivals. Gubrud’s role as a teacher has been a key facet of her career. She taught at Washington University, St. Louis (...

(b Berlin, Aug 10, 1931; d Vienna, April 21, 2022). German soprano. She studied with Maria Ivogün in Vienna, where she made her début in 1957 in operetta. Engaged at the Volksoper and later the Staatsoper, she appeared there for over 20 years. At Salzburg (1961–3) she sang Blonde and Papagena. Her repertory included Zerlina, Despina, Marzelline, Norina, Mařenka, Sophie, Isotta (...

(b Rrëshen, Abania, July 18, 1974). Albanian soprano. In 1992 she completed her vocal studies with V. Kosta at the Jordan Misja Liceu Artistik in Tirana. In 1993 she earned a scholarship and moved to Italy to study at the Accademia Mantovana of Katia Ricciarelli, and later studied at the S. Cecilia Conservatorio in Rome with Valerio Papperi. From 1997 to 2000 her activity concentrated in Italy, and she won a number of competitions including the Giacomo Pucinni Milan (1997) and Spontini International Competition in Ancona (1998), among others. She has performed on such important stages as those at Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala Milano, the Metropolitan Opera, the Berliner Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra Bastille, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, NHK Opera in Japan, the Arena di Verona, and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Her rich repertory includes roles in ...

(b Cleveland, OH, Aug 13, 1907; d New York, NY, March 13, 2002). American soprano, music publisher, and concert manager. She studied singing with Ruth Thayer Burnham while attending Abbot Academy, Andover, and later at Wellesley College (BA 1929). After two years as an actress at the Cleveland Playhouse, she sang in Gabriel Pierné’s La croisade des enfants with the Cleveland Orchestra (1932). She was then coached by Eva Gauthier in New York and made her debut there in 1934 at Town Hall in the North American premiere of Handel’s solo cantata La Lucrezia. Three years later she sang Butterfly and Tosca with the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp. After meeting Sibelius in Finland, she returned to the United States and introduced a number of his songs in concert (1938). During World War II Johnson escorted a convoy of refugees from Paris to Spain and as a result of the ordeal lost her voice. She joined the staff of ...

(b Bosanski Brod, Bosnia, Dec 30, 1937; d Zagreb, Croatia, Sept 18, 2007). Bosnian soprano and prima donna. She completed her secondary music education and university studies in singing in Sarajevo. She graduated from the Academy of Music in Sarajevo in 1963 (studying under Bruna Špiler and Zlata Đunđevac-Gavella). One of the key figures in her personal musical development was operetta diva Erika Druzović, who spotted her talent for refined musicality and striking vocal ability. In 1959 she debuted with the Sarajevo Opera in the role of Duchess in The Marriage of Figaro. She performed with this opera company from 1962 to 1975, eventually attaining prima donna status.

Her international career was launched by a competition in Tokyo (1968), where she was awarded the prize for the best performance of the role of Cho-Cho-San in Madam Butterfly. After this she performed on several stages around the world, including the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala, and her striking performance of the title role in ...

(b Tirana, Albania, June 27, 1963). Albanian soprano . She graduated in 1986 from the Higher Institute of Arts in Tirana, where she studied with her mother, who was a professor there. In 1987 she won the Singer of Albania competition, and then the George Enescu Competition in Bucharest, the Grand Prix ‘Madam Butterfly’ in Barcelona, and the Placido Domingo International Voice Competition in Paris. During 1993, with Domingo, she toured Europe and the USA, which opened the doors to cooperation with important theatres and conductors. From the early days of her career, she excelled in several Verdi-repertory roles: Oscar in Un Ballo in mascara (Opera of Monte Carlo); Nanetta in Falstaff (La Scala, the Ravenna Festival, etc.); Gilda in Rigoletto (Verona Arena, Music Center of Los Angeles, etc.); Violetta in La traviata (Deutsche Oper Berlin, New National Theatre in Tokyo, Covent Garden in London, etc.). Other roles in her repertory include: ...

[Alex Penda ]

(b Sofia, Bulgaria, Sept 24, 1970). Bulgarian opera soprano . She has worked under the pseudonym Alex Penda since May 2012. She was born into a well-known family of musicians; her grandfather is Sasha Popov, one of the most prestigious figures in 20th century Bulgaria, a violinist, conductor, and the founder of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra; her mother, the soprano Valerie Popova, sang regularly at La Scala (1983–6) and was Pendachanska’s first vocal teacher. Pendachanska graduated from the National School of Music, Sofia, with a degree in piano and singing. She made her debut at 17 as Violetta in La traviata. She won the Antonin Dvorak International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary at age 19 (1989), the International Vocal Competition in Bilbao (second prize, 1988), and the UNISA singing competition in Pretoria (1990). Since her international début as Lucia di Lammermoor in Bilbao (...

(b New York, Aug 16, 1952; d Chicago, June 20, 2021). American soprano. She studied at the Curtis Institute. In 1975, three days before her scheduled début at the New York City Opera as Zerbinetta, she replaced an ailing soprano as Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann. Appearing at first as a comic coloratura, she increasingly took on more dramatic roles such as Gilda, Lucia (1986, San Francisco), the Queen of Night, and Handel’s Cleopatra (with the ENO in Geneva, 1983) and moved into many of the roles once sung at the City Opera by Beverly Sills. She made her Metropolitan début in 1979 as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, returning as Olympia and Zerbinetta; in the latter role she made her European début at Glyndebourne (1981), where she later sang Susanna, Zdenka, and Konstanze. Her roles also included Philine (Mignon). She sang Bianca in the North American première of ...

(b Madison, WI, June 3, 1960). American soprano. She has done her most important work at the extremes of the opera timeline, winning acclaim for interpretations of both early and contemporary repertory. In 1988 she played the roles of Poppea, Fortune, and Minerva in Stephen Wadsworth’s Monteverdi cycle at Skylight Comic Opera. She went on to appear in works by Monteverdi, Cavalli, and Handel in venues around the world, including Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera (Cooperstown, NY), Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Spain), and the International Handel Festival (Göttingen, Germany). Saffer has collaborated frequently with the composer and conductor Oliver Knussen, beginning with performances of Hans Werner Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers in 1988 at Tanglewood. She has been celebrated for her interpretation of Marie in Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, a role she has performed at Opéra Bastille, New York City Opera, and the English National Opera. As the title character in Alban Berg’s ...

(b Cleveland, Oct 5, 1935; d New York, April 17, 2020). American soprano. After studying in Cleveland and Milan, she made her début in 1961 as Mimì at the Teatro Nuovo, Milan, and appeared with the New York City Opera. Engaged at the Hamburg Staatsoper from 1964, she sang in the première of Klebe’s Jacobowsky und der Oberst (1965). In 1966 she sang Pamina at Glyndebourne, and the following year made her first appearances at San Francisco as Louise and Gounod’s Marguerite. She created Mme Euterpova in Menotti’s Help, Help, the Globolinks! at Hamburg (1968) and the title role in Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci at Washington (1971). She made her Metropolitan début as Eva in 1971. In Boston she sang Natasha (Prokofiev’s War and Peace, 1974) and Nadia (Tippett’s The Ice Break, 1979). She made her Covent Garden début as Minnie (...

(b Banja Luka, Bosnia, July 25, 1940). Bosnian soprano, opera soloist, and music pedagogue. She completed her elementary and secondary music education in her native town. She began her studies in opera singing at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana (Slovenia), with Julije Beteto. After the second year, she continued her music education in Sarajevo, with Bruna Špiler. The distinctiveness of her talent was recognized early on, and she graduated at the top of her class. She took the master’s degree from the Department of Voice in 1967.

Upon completing her studies, with a Sarajevo Opera scholarship, she made her début in Jenufa (L. Janáček) in 1965. From that moment on, she was engaged as a soloist at the Sarajevo Opera and, from 1965 to 1968, sang the roles of Abigaille (Nabucco, G. Verdi), Katerina Ismailova (Katerina Ismailova, D. Shostakovich), and Floramye (Little Floramye, I. Tijardović). In ...

(b Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, Aug 16, 1962). Bulgarian soprano. She is a graduate of the High School of Music in Ruse in violin (1981). She went on to study at the Institute of Music in Plovdiv and obtained degrees in violin and voice (1988). In 1995 she won recognition as an opera soloist in the Sofia National Opera House covering a wide range of roles, such as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Susanna (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro), Cecilia (Antonio Carlo Gomes’s Il Guarany), Delia (Antonio Carlo Gomes’s I Fosca), Rachel (Fromental Halévi’s La Juive), and Vitellia (Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito). She made her debut at Wiener Staatsoper in 1998 where, among others, she performed the roles of the Contessa (Le Nozze Di Figaro), Micaela (Bizet’s Carmen), Antonia (Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann), Liu (Puccini’s Turandot...

(b Rome, Aug 4, 1929; d Rome, July 11, 2020). Italian soprano. After studying at the Rome Conservatory, she continued her vocal training with Leonardo Filoni, whom she later married. In 1951 she made her début in La forza del destino opposite Gigli. She sang throughout Italy (her La Scala début was as Mimì in 1959), and made guest appearances internationally, notably at the Teatro Colón and the Bol′shoy Theatre. She made her London début at the Adelphi Theatre as Mimì in December 1959 and first appeared at Covent Garden in the next year, as Aida and Tosca. Her American début, in San Francisco, was as Maddalena (Andrea Chénier) in 1959; the following October, as Butterfly, she began a close association with the Metropolitan which lasted until 1973. Her repertory included most of the standard Italian spinto roles and she also successfully undertook the challenge of such florid parts as Elcia (...