Von Stade, Frederica

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(b Somerville, NJ, June 1, 1945). American mezzo-soprano . She studied at the Mannes School, New York, making her début at the Metropolitan in 1970 as the Third Boy in Die Zauberflöte; later roles there included Suzuki, Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) and Nicklausse. At Santa Fe she sang Cherubino, Zerlina and Mélisande, and created Maria in Villa-Lobos’s Yerma (1971). A spirited Cherubino, notably at the Paris Opéra and Glyndebourne (both 1973) and at Salzburg (1974–5), she was also admired as Octavian. She made her Covent Garden début in 1975 as Rosina and returned in 1985 as Ellen (La donna del lago). Her repertory included Mozart’s Sextus, Idamantes, Dorabella, Cenerentola (of which she made an outstanding video recording from La Scala in 1981), Adalgisa, Charlotte, Monteverdi’s Penelope, Hänsel, and the Composer (Ariadne). In ...