  g(11696700)a(1393595))
| | Gorr Rita | | mezzosoprano |   
| Her real names is Marguerite Geirnaert. She began her studies at the Brussels Academy of Music in 1943. She won the first prize at the Competition in Verviers in 1946 and made her debut in 1949 at the Opera House in Antwerp as Fricka in Die Walküre, then appeared as a guest at the Ghent Opera House. As a member of the Strasbourg Opera from 1949 to 1952, she scored her first successes as Carmen, Amneris and as Orpheus in Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice. In 1952 she won the first prize at the International Singing Contest in Lausanne and was engaged at the Opéra de Paris where she was most successful and where she sang in the world premiere of Numance by H.Barraud. Her guest appearances soon ensured her popularity all over the world. She sang Fricka, Grimgerde and the First Norn at the Bayreuth Festival in 1958, and Ortrud in 1959. She was a guest artist at the Scala in Milan in 1958 in the role of Santuzza, and in 1960 as Kundry. She joined the Opéra-Comique in Paris and made her debut there as Charlotte in Werther. In 1959 she sang in Monteverdi's Orfeo at that theatre. She was heard at Covent Garden from 1959 to 1971 and as Amneris in 1959, one of her greatest roles. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in that same role in 1962. At that theatre she appeared in 36 performances over 4 seasons as Santuzza, Azucena, Eboli in Don Carlo and Dalila. In 1961 she was applauded as Iphigénie in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at Covent Garden and the Edinburgh Festival, in 1969 in the first performance in English of Padmâvati by Roussel at the London Coliseum. The title role in Cherubini's Médée was one of her best roles. She sang as a guest and with great success in opera houses all over the world, in Ghent and Brussels, at the Teatro San Carlos in Lisbon and in Chicago (1962). Her career was a long one. After retiring in 1971, she returned in 1981 as the Mother in Charpentier's Louise (Théatre de la Monnaie in Brussels), and since then has appeared as Kabanicha in Janacek's Katya Kabanova and in other suitable parts. In 1991 she was heard as Herodias in R.Strauss' Salome at the Opéra de Lyon, as Madame de Croissy (the old prioress) in Les dialogues des Carmélites ; she sang that role in Seattle and in 1994 at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. She was heard as the Countess in The queen of spades in 1994 in Amsterdam, as Marthe in Gounod's Faust in 1994 at the Opéra de Nantes, as Fillipjewna in Eugene Onegin in 1995 at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. She had a brillant international career as a concert singer. She had a large, voluminous voice whose intensity helped her excel not only in Wagnerian roles but also in parts such as Dalila, Hérodiade, Charlotte in Werther, Eboli, Azucena, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, Amneris, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Orpheus in Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice and Carmen. Recordings: Phillips: complete Pelléas et Mélisande, HMV: Les dialogues des Carmélites, Iphigénie en Tauride, Columbia: Le Roi d'Ys by Lalo, RCA: Aida, Lohengrin, MRF: Padmâvati, (recording of the performance mentioned above), Erato: Louise by Charpentier, Melodram: Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (Bayreuth 1958), Ortrud in Lohengrin (Bayreuth, 1959). |
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