  g(11696700)a(1393595))
| | Horne Marilyn | | mezzosoprano |   
| Marilyn Berneice Horne was born on January 16, 1934 in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Her father,\nBentz Horne, was a strong musical influence in her life right up until his death in July of 1956. He\nencouraged his daughter to persue her musical dreams and she did just that. Marilyn made her operatic debut at the age of twenty in the role of Hata in Smetana's The\nBartered Bride for the Los Angeles Guild Opera in the fall of 1954. That summer, she sang the\nvoice of Carmen Jones in Oscar Hammerstein's re-creation of Bizet's Carmen. When her father died, Marilyn travelled to Europe in the hopes of furthering her career. She\ntravelled to Gelsenkirchen, Germany and joined the Gelsenkirchen Opera Company. She\nperformed in many of the company's productions as a soprano, singing such roles as Mimi in La\nBohème, Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. Her first great\ncareer success occured at the inauguration of Gelsenkirchen's new opera house on May 22, 1960 as\nMarie in Berg's Wozzeck. She received rave reviews and Marie, a role she had not wanted to\nperform, became her ticket back to the United States. Brenda Lewis, engaged to sing Marie in San\nFrancisco, was ill and Marilyn left Gelsenkirchen to perform the role. On July 1, 1960, Marilyn married conductor Henry Lewis. Their only child, Angela, was born on June 14, 1965. The couple divorced in October of 1974. Because of her pregnancy, Marilyn was forced to withdraw from a performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia for the American Opera Society in New York City. As a replacement, they hired a new Spanish soprano named Montserrat Caballé, who thrilled the New York audience and became a star overnight.\nIt was soon after the San Francisco Wozzeck that Marilyn made her first appearance with Joan\nSutherland. Marilyn performed Agnese opposite Sutherland in a Town Hall concert version of\nBellini's Beatrice di Tenda. The opera opened on February 21, 1961.\nNow that she was an international star, Marilyn began performing regularly in the world's great\nopera houses. She made her Covent Garden debut was in October of 1964 as Marie in Wozzeck.\nHer La Scala debut was as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex on March 13, 1969. Her\nMetropolitan Opera debut was as Adalgisa opposite Joan Sutherland's Norma in Bellini's Norma.\nShe sang many more times at the Met, and opened the 1972/73 season as Carmen on September\n19, 1972. In 1984, she brought Handel's Rinaldo to the Met, the first Handel opera ever performed\nthere.\nMarilyn Horne has been called "probably the greatest singer in the world" (Opera News, 1981).\nShe is, without a doubt, one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos in opera history and is probably the greatest Rossini interpreter ever. She has been singing for over 40 years and her contributions to the opera world live on in her numerous recordings. |
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