  g(11696700)a(1393595))
| | Watson Claire | | soprano |   
| Under her true name, Claire McLamore, she began voice studies with Elisabeth Schumann and Sergius Kagen in New York, and attended the class of Eduard Lichtenstein at the Academy of Musc in Amsterdam. She learned a number of roles with Otto Klemperer in Vienna. In 1951 she made her debut at the Municipal Theatre in Graz as Verdi's Desdemona, then returned to the USA where she made only occasional appearances. She returned to Europe in 1956 and had her first important successes at the Frankfurt Opera House (1956-59). From 1958, she sang regularly as a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In 1958, she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro at the Opening of the Cuvilliés-Theatre in Munich, and in 1963 as Eva at the opening of the rebuilt State Opera. She sang as a guest with great success at Covent Garden (1958-64, 1970, 1972) where she made her debut as the Marschallin. In 1958 she took part in the premiere of the English version of Poulenc's Les dialogues des Carmélites. She repeated her Marschallin at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1960. She was applauded as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festval (1966-68). She was equally successful in her appearances in her native U.S.A.. She frequently sang at the Vienna State Opera, as well as in Brussels, Barcelona, Lisbon, Zagreb, at La Scala, the Rome Opera House, in Turin, Venice, Amsterdam, at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, at the Opera Houses of San Francisco, Chicago, Boston New Orleans and Toronto. This versatile artist whose acting was equally impressive mastered many roles with great musicality and total assurance: Donna Elvira, Sieglinde, Eva, Elsabeth, Desdemona, Ariadne, the Marschallin, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes. She was equally at home on the concert platform. She gave her farewell performance as the Marschallin in Munich in 1979. Recordings : Decca (Peter Grimes, The Ring, Die Meistersinger, Die Zauberflöte), HMV (Don Giovanni), Intercord, Philips (Le Nozze di Figaro), Arkadia (Der Rosenkavalier). |
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