Frederica von Stade: Difference between revisions

She began her education at [[Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart]] and [[Holy Trinity School (Washington, D.C.)|Holy Trinity School]] in Washington DC, where her mother worked as a secretary for the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. When her mother relocated to [[Oldwick, New Jersey]], she transferred to [[Far Hills Country Day School]];: FHCDS's musical theatre programme gavesaw her in the first of her many trouser roles when she appeared there as Nanki-Poo in ''[[The Mikado]]''. During her final high school years, she boarded at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, no longer extant, in [[Noroton, Connecticut]]. Her introduction to opera came at the [[Salzburg Festival]] in 1961, when her mother took her to see [[Elisabeth Schwarzkopf]] and [[Christa Ludwig]] in ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]''.

After a successful appearance as a semi-finalist in the [[Metropolitan Opera]] National Council Auditions in 1969, von Stade was invited to join the Met's young artist programme. A summons from the rehearsal room to a private audition with Sir [[Rudolf Bing]] resulted in her signing a three -year contract as a comprimario. She made her Met debut as the Third Boy in ''[[Die Zauberflöte]]'' on 10 January 1970, and went on to play eighteen other apprentice roles as "everybody's page or their maid—I was an operatic domestic".

In 1971, the Met allowed her to moonlight in [[San Francisco Opera|San Francisco]] and in [[Santa Fe Opera|Santa Fe]] as [[La clemenza di Tito|Sesto]] and [[Le nozze di Figaro|Cherubino]] respectively, but in 1972, hungry for more challenging roles, she decided to embark on a career as a freelance. She debuted as Cherubino in [[Houston Grand Opera|Houston]] and as [[Il barbiere di Siviglia|Rosina]] in [[Washington National Opera|Washington DC]] in 1973. That was also the year when she first sang in Europe: she was highly acclaimed as Cherubino—her signature role—in celebrated productions by [[Giorgio Strehler]] in [[Opéra de Paris|Paris]] and by [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]] at [[Glyndebourne Festival|Glyndebourne]]. Soon she was singing in all of opera's most prestigious houses, appearing as Cherubino in Salzburg in 1974, as Rosina at [[Royal Opera House Covent Garden|Covent Garden]] in 1975, as Rosina at [[Teatro alla Scala|La Scala]] in 1976 and as Cherubino in [[Vienna State Opera|Vienna]] in 1977. Her recording of [[Joseph Haydn]]'s ''[[Harmoniemesse]]'' (taped under [[Leonard Bernstein]] in 1973) was the first item in what grew to be a large and eclectic discography, and a telecast of ''[[Le nozze di Figaro]]'' from Glyndebourne in 1973 launched her on a television career that eventually made her a familiar face on screens in America and across the world. The highlights of her performing life included singing in Washington DC for Presidents [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]], [[James Earl Carter|Carter]], [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and [[George Herbert Walker Bush|George H. W. Bush]], starring in a gala staged toin complementhonour of the [[1992 Winter Olympics]] and participating in a televised concert led by [[Leonard Slatkin]] into honour of themourn those murdered in the terrorist atrocities of [[September 11 attacks|9/11]].

With a coltish physique and a warm, soft-grained, lyric mezzo-soprano voice that extended into [[soprano]] territory, she was a celebrated exponent of ''travesti'' roles like [[Hänsel und Gretel|Hänsel]], [[Idomeneo|Idamante]], and [[Der Rosenkavalier|Octavian]], and—aided by her striking beauty—she was also much admired playing leading ladies like [[La Cenerentola|Angelina]], [[Werther|Charlotte]], [[Così fan tutte|Dorabella]], [[Cendrillon|Lucette]], [[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Mélisande]], [[Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria|Penelope]] and [[Don Giovanni|Zerlina]]. In the autumn of her career, she transitioned into character parts, among them [[Così fan tutte|Despina]], [[Lulu (opera)|Geschwitz]], [[The Aspern Papers (opera)|Tina]], [[The Dangerous Liaisons|the Marquise de Merteuil]], [[Dead Man Walking (opera)|Mrs deDe Rocher]], [[Three Decembers|Madeline Mitchell]], [[Great Scott (opera)|Winnie Flato]] and [[A Coffin in Egypt|Myrtle Bledsoe]]. Her repertoire spanned the gamut from the baroque era through the classical and Romantic periods to modern music (including jazz and pop). Her many firsts included the US premiere of [[Claudio Monteverdi|Monteverdi]]'s ''[[Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria]]'', the Met's first performance of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''[[Idomeneo]]'', the first recording of [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]'s ''[[Cendrillon]]'' and the world premieres of operas by [[Dominick Argento]], Lembit Beecher, [[Ricky Ian Gordon]], Jake Heggie, [[Thomas Pasatieri]], [[Conrad Susa]] and [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]]. Her appearances in musicals by Leonard Bernstein and [[Stephen Sondheim]] reflected a love of musical theatre that had been kindled when she was a little girl listening to her mother's [[78 RPM|78]]s of songs by [[George Gershwin]] and [[Jerome Kern]].

Although she was primarily a singing actress, she was also a busy concert artist, particularly in the 1990s and 2000s. The composers whose orchestral pieces she programmed most often were Mozart, [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]], [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] and [[Joseph Canteloube|Canteloube]],. whoThese also featured prominently in her enormous recital repertoire, alongside [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]], [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]], [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]], [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]], [[Francis Poulenc|Poulenc]], [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]], [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], [[Richard Strauss]] and the many American composers for whom she was an evangelist and, in several cases, a [[Muses|muse]]. French ''mélodies'' were particularly dear to her—a devoted Francophile, she became a fluent French speaker while still a teenager and made her home in Paris for several years during her early thirties. The pianist with whom she performed most often was [[Martin Katz (pianist)|Martin Katz]]. (Other colleagues who were especially important in her career were the composers Dominick Argento and Jake Heggie, the conductors [[Claudio Abbado]], [[James Levine]] and [[Michael Tilson Thomas]] and the singers [[Kiri Te Kanawa]], [[Marilyn Horne]], [[Thomas Allen (baritone)|Thomas Allen]], [[Thomas Hampson]], [[Richard Stilwell (baritone)|Richard Stilwell]] and [[Samuel Ramey]].)

Von Stade's authorized biography, Richard Parlour's ''Flicka: The Life and Music of Frederica von Stade'', is scheduled for publication in 2025. She has been the subject of two major film profiles: ''Call Me Flicka'' (BBC and RM Munich, 1980), produced by [[Herbert Chappell]], and ''Flicka: A Love Letter'' (Paper Wings Films, 2023), directed by Brian Staufenbiel and produced by Nicolle Foland and [[Dede Wilsey]]. Many other von Stade videos are accessible via two YouTube playlists,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBjIDv1PbolQYN0YEndB3KhwO_YDW0-Uj|title=Frederica von Stade in performance}} and {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBjIDv1PbolQz2AI-wmmXgifFbsQPxCCH|title=Frederica von Stade in conversation}} (Complementary YouTube playlists collate {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBjIDv1PbolSRS7-_i9qMbS7uQJq5WDyi|title=Frederica von Stade albums}} and examples of {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBjIDv1PbolRmVxo2CVPOcChE3M-wXqtq|title=Frederica von Stade in rare audio recordings}})