Eleanor Steber

Eleanor Steber, (born Wheeling, West Virginia, 17 July 1916 - died Langhorne, Pennsylvania. 3 October 1990) was an American opera singer. Image File history File links EleanorSteber. ... Image File history File links EleanorSteber. ... Wheeling is the name of some places in the United States of America: Wheeling, Illinois Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is also a form of torture: Wheeling Wheeling is also a technique for the cold forming of sheet metal into complex shapes. ... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston Largest city Charleston Area  Ranked 41st  - Total 24,244 sq. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Official language(s) None Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 160 miles (255 km)  - Length 280 miles (455 km)  - % water 2. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Sydney Opera House: one of the worlds most recognisable opera houses and landmarks. ...

She sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1940 to 1961, a career chiefly distinguished for the high-lying soprano roles of Richard Strauss, and Mozart heroines as well. She was quite versatile, singing Wagner, Alban Berg, some French opera, the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa by Samuel Barber and a number of Metropolitan Opera premieres, including Strauss’s Arabella, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), and Berg's Wozzeck. , The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at the Metropolitan Opera House for a concert by pianist Józef Hofmann, November 28, 1937. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864 – September 8, 1949) was a German composer of the late Romantic era, particularly noted for his tone poems and operas. ... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was one of the most significant and influential of all composers of Western classical music. ... Wagner may refer to more than one place in the United States: Wagner, South Dakota Wagner, Wisconsin Wagner may refer to more than one person: Richard Wagner, German composer Cosima Wagner, daughter of Franz Liszt and wife of Richard Wagner Heinrich Leopold Wagner, dramatist and author John Peter Honus Wagner... Alban Maria Johannes Berg (February 9, 1885 – December 24, 1935) was an Austrian composer. ... Samuel Barber, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1944 Samuel Osborne Barber (March 9, 1910–January 23, 1981) was an American composer of classical music, best known for his Adagio for Strings. ... Arabella is an opera (lyric comedy in 3 acts) by Richard Strauss with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last common work. ... The Abduction from the Seraglio (K. 384; in German Die Entführung aus dem Serail) is a comic opera in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ...

Of erratic temperament, she could indulge in life’s pleasures to an extreme, and gradually developed a reputation for hard-living; some would argue lifestyle took a toll on her voice, and indeed on occasion she could plainly be over-tired and out of form. In the late 1940s she made a brilliant success of the Mozart Figaro Countess at the Edinburgh Festival, so much so that HMV Records engaged her to come to their studios after the Festival to record Mozart and other popular arias. By the account of Walter Süsskind, the conductor of both the Edinburgh performances and the proposed recordings, she arrived at the Abbey Road Studios not feeling well and admitted to having partied most of the night. She could not sing her standard arias, saying “I don’t feel like singing that.” Süsskind, trying to save the recording session, responded, “What do you feel like singing?” Steber thought for a moment and said, “Let’s try ‘Depuis le jour’ (Louise)...” Orchestra parts were found and the disc was cut in one take. It became a famous recording, revealing, especially in the arching opening pages, a quite beautiful vocal line and quality. Le Nozze di Figaro, is a comic opera composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Beaumarchais. ... There is no one Edinburgh Festival but those using the term are usually referring to the collection of various festivals in August and early September of each year in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... The legendary recording studio Abbey Road Studios, created in November of 1931 by EMI in London, is best known as the legendary recording studio used by the rock bands The Beatles, Cliff Richard, Pink Floyd and The Shadows. ...

Her career was often marked by incidents such as this, including the summer of 1953 at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival, where her performances of Elsa in Lohengrin were highly acclaimed, her personal deportment in society much less so. Even so, she stands as one of America’s greatest native-born and trained operatic sopranos. Her many recordings are still available, as are audio and visual tapes of her radio and television broadcasts for the Voice of Firestone. No survey of American opera singing is complete without serious attention to Steber. Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as seen in 1882 The annual Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany is devoted principally (but not exclusively) to performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner. ... In some German Arthurian literature, Lohengrin is the son of Parzival (Percival). ... The Voice of Firestone was a weekly broadcast of the best in classical music, as performed by the nations most popular composers. ...

She died on 3 October 1990 in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, following heart valve surgery.

Discography

• Eleanor Steber sings Richard Strauss; VAI Audio; Karl Böhm (1st work), James Levine (2nd work, encore), conductors. Recorded: Munich, June 4, 1953, (1st work); Cleveland, May 5, 1970 (2nd work, encore)
• Eleanor Steber sings Mozart - Selections Voice of Firestone; VAI Audio; Robert Lawrence (1st-6th works), Wilfred Pelletier (7th) or Howard Barlow (8th-10th), conductor. Recorded Apr., 1960 (1st-6th works); from Voice of Firestone radio broadcasts, 1946-1952 (remainder).
• Eleanor Steber, her first recordings (1940); VAI Audio; Wilfrid Pelletier, conductor; Recorded May 30-31, 1940 and June 25-26, 1940, Town Hall, New York City; and June 17, 1940, Academy of Music, Philadelphia.
• The Eleanor Steber collection. Vol. 1, the early career, 1938-1951; Armand Tokatyan (3rd and 5th works); George Cehanovsky (6th work); Leonard Warren (6th work); Recorded 1938-1951.
• Vanessa; RCA Victor Gold Seal; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus ; Dmitri Mitropoulos, conductor; Recorded February and April 1958 in Manhattan Center.
• Madama Butterfly; Sony Classical (Columbia originally); Jean Madeira, Suzuki ; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus; "1949 Metropolitan Opera Association Production".

See Also

• Eleanor Steber: an autobiography with Marcia Sloat; Wordsworth, 1992.
• He loves me when I sing: remembering Eleanor Steber; Judith Buffington and other friends; Cottrell Printing, 1993.

Sources

Steber, Eleanor by Martin Bernheimer, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7 The New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia (or encyclopedic dictionary) of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. ...

Peter G. Davis in his book American Opera Singers offers a fine portrait of Steber.