Frederica Von Stade
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Frederica von Stade OAL (born June 1, 1945) is a semi-retired American opera singer. Since her
Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
debut in 1970, she has performed in operas, musicals, concerts and recitals in venues throughout the world, including
La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...
, the
Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...
, the
Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August S ...
, the Salzburger Festspielhaus,
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
,
Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...
and
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
. Conductors with whom she has worked include
Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
,
Bernstein Bernstein is a common surname in the German language, meaning "amber" (literally "burn stone"). The name is used by both Germans and Jews, although it is most common among people of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. The German pronunciation is , but in E ...
,
Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...
, Giulini, Karajan,
Levine Levine (French transliteration from Russian) / Levin (surname), Levin (English transliteration from Russian Левин) is a common Jewish language, Jewish (Ashkenazi Jewish) surname. Levinsky is a variation with the same meaning (see French version ...
,
Muti Muthi is a traditional medicine practice in Southern Africa as far north as Lake Tanganyika. Name In South African English, the word ''muti'' is derived from the Zulu language, Zulu/Xhosa language, Xhosa/Northern Ndebele language, Northern Nde ...
,
Ozawa Ozawa (written: or lit. "small swamp") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Eitaro Ozawa (1909-1988), Japanese actor *Ichirō Ozawa (born 1942), Japanese politician *Hideaki Ozawa (born 1974), Japanese football goalkee ...
,
Sinopoli Sinopoli (; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 90 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 30 km northeast of Reggio Calabria. As of 31 December 2004, it had a p ...
,
Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-servin ...
and Tilson Thomas. She has also been a prolific and eclectic recording artist, attracting nine
Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
nominations for best classical vocalist, and she has made many appearances on television. A
mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
equally at home in lyric music and in
coloratura Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. or a passage of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, an ...
, she has assumed fifty-seven operatic roles on stage and eight more in concert or on disc, progressing from minor parts to romantic leadsboth male and femaleand, latterly, character parts. She is especially associated with the
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
,
Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
and French repertoires and with contemporary American music, particularly the works of
Dominick Argento Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas '' Postcard from Morocco'', '' Miss Havisham's Fire'', ''The Masque of An ...
and
Jake Heggie Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers. B ...
. She has participated in nine world premieres. Among her signature roles are
Penelope Penelope ( ; Ancient Greek: Πηνελόπεια, ''Pēnelópeia'', or el, Πηνελόπη, ''Pēnelópē'') is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey.'' She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Pe ...
, Rosina, Angelina,
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, Lucette, Mélisande, Hanna Glawari and Mrs de Rocher, and, in trousers,
Cherubino ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
, Hänsel,
Chérubin ''Chérubin'' is an opera (''comédie chantée'') in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Francis de Croisset and Henri Cain after de Croisset's play of the same name. It was first performed at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 14 F ...
and
Octavian Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
. Since stepping back from full-time performing in 2010, she has become increasingly involved in charitable work, principally in aid of ventures fostering musical education or supporting people enduring homelessness. The institutions that she has served include
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
's Sophia Project and St Martin de Porres School, both no longer extant, and the People's Choir of Oakland, the Dallas Street Choir and the Young Musicians Choral Orchestra. Her divorce from her first husband, Peter Elkus, was important in the development of American family case law, establishing the principle that when the marriages of performing artists are dissolved, the courts can attribute an economic value to their celebrity status and treat it as marital property to be shared with their former spouses.


Early life


Childhood

Von Stade is a member of a large, wealthyParlour, Richard: Flicka at forty, ''Music and Musicians'', July 1985, p. 6 family long prominent in northeast American high society,Jacobson, Robert: Flicka and Richard, ''Opera News'', January 24, 1976, p. 16 with roots in Ireland,Swan, Annalyn: The sweetheart of American opera, ''
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'', April 4, 1983, p. 50
the Isle of Man,Fox, Sue: My hols, ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', July 21, 2002, §5, p. 18
England, Denmark and Germany;Berthoud, Roger: La dame aux beaux plombages, ''
The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...
'', August 1, 1985, p. 20
"a horsey... set, with a... background that goes back to Colonial Connecticut. The whole thing—''Social Register'', polo, yachts, investments, private schools, convents." Her father was
Charles Steele von Stade Charles Steele von Stade (November 24, 1919 – April 10, 1945) was an American polo champion. Biography Personal life Charles Steele von Stade was born in Old Westbury, Long Island, New York on November 24, 1919 to Francis Skiddy von Stade, Sr ...
, a banker, polo champion and war hero, and her mother was Sara Worthington Clucas von Stade, a secretary and caterer. Von Stade was born in
Somerville, New Jersey Somerville is a borough and the county seat of Somerset County, New Jersey, United States.New Je ...
on June 1, 1945,Tassel, Janet: A real thoroughbred, ''
Opera News ''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...
'', April 9, 1983, p. 16
a premature baby weighing 2½ pounds. Seven weeks earlier, on April 10, 1945, her father was killed in action in Germany in World War II when his jeep ran over a landmine. Danielpour, Richard: ''Elegies'' and ''Sonnets to Orpheus'', with
Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...
, Ying Huang, von Stade, the
London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...
and the Perspectives Ensemble, conducted by Roger Nierenberg, Sony CD, SK 60850, 2001
The many letters that he had written to her mother from Europe later inspired Kim Vaeth and
Richard Danielpour Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer. Early life Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New E ...
to devise the song cycle ''Elegies'' for her. She described her feelings about her father in her 2004 song lyric "To my Dad", which was set to music by Jake Heggie and performed by them on his album ''Flesh & Stone''. Von Stade was named after her maternal grandmother, Frederica ( Bull) Clucas. Her family later came to call her by a nickname, Flicka, Swedish for "little girl", which her father had borrowed from
Mary O'Hara Mary O'Hara (born 12 May 1935) is an Irish soprano and harpist from County Sligo. She gained attention on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her recordings of that period influenced a generation of Irish female singer ...
's novel ''
My Friend Flicka ''My Friend Flicka'' is a 1941 novel by Mary O'Hara, about Ken McLaughlin, the son of a Wyoming rancher, and his mustang horse Flicka. It was the first in a trilogy, followed by ''Thunderhead'' (1943) and ''Green Grass of Wyoming'' (1946). The p ...
'' to bestow upon his favourite polo pony.Anon: Von Stade: Forget the Magic; ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', December 13, 1976, pg. 101
On December 6, 1946, von Stade's mother married Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) Horace William Fuller (19081989). Employed as a diplomat by the US State Department, he took von Stade, her brother Charles and her mother with him on assignments in Italy and Greece, but his duties allowed him so little time with his stepdaughter that she scarcely got to know him. Her memories of her childhood in Athens inspired one of the poems in her lyric cycle ''Paper Wings'', which was set to music by Jake Heggie and performed by them on his album '' The Faces of Love: The Songs of Jake Heggie''. On October 6, 1950, Sara Fuller and her children left
Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...
on the
SS America SS ''America'' may refer to: * , a passenger steamer for North German Lloyd, 1863–1894 * , a passenger steamer for Pacific Mail Steamship Company * , a cargo ship that was in Chilean service in 1928, formerly known as the ''George W. Elder''. * ...
to return to the United States. The Fullers divorced in 1951. Sara von Stade established a new life for herself in Washington, D. C., working for the CIA as a secretary. Von Stade remembers her early self as a "latchkey kid" with a dynamic, clever, humorous, volatile mother whose "problem with booze" did not compromise her passionate attachment to her daughter. Von Stade began her education at the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, a college-preparatory school near the
Bethesda Naval Hospital The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), formerly known as the National Naval Medical Center and colloquially referred to as the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed, or Navy Med, is a United States' tri-service military medi ...
., later transferring to the Holy Trinity School, Georgetown, a parochial school founded by Jesuits. When she reached grade 8, her mother relocated to Oldwick, Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, and she spent two years at the nearby
Far Hills Country Day School Far Hills Country Day School (FHCDS) is a private, co-educational Preschool-Grade 8 school located in Far Hills, New Jersey. The school is situated on 54 acres that include learning gardens, computer labs, media centers, a performing arts cente ...
before returning to the care of the nuns of the Convent of the Sacred Heart at their elite boarding college-preparatory school. Each of von Stade's closest relatives had at least some enthusiasm for music. At
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, her brother sang in the Whiffenpoof ''a capella'' chorus; her mother liked listening to operas on the radioKoopman, John: Im Gespräch: Frederica von Stade, ''Das Opern Glas'', April 1990, pg. 41 and to popular melodies on her Victrola record player; and her father, admired by his comrades for his attractive singing, was a pianist and organist who had studied at a music college in New York. She herself began singing when she was six or seven, pleased to discover that dressing up and performing for her family helped her to cope with a shyness so extreme that the prospect of going to a party could make her physically ill. At Stone Ridge, she sang processional music and Masses under the guidance of Mother Jan McNabb. From the age of fourteen, she began taking Saturday train rides from New Jersey to New York to see the latest musicals on
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
; she routinely bought standing passes for a matinee and an evening performance on the same day, whiling away the interval between them by loitering outside the
Metropole Cafe The Metropole Cafe was a jazz club that operated in New York from the mid-1950s through 1965. Located at 7th Avenue and 48th Street, it was primarily noted in the bebop and progressive jazz era as being a venue for traditional musicians. Henry "Re ...
and eavesdropping on jazz played by
Gene Krupa Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, S ...
or
Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...
. Among the shows that she enjoyed were ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...
'', ''
The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...
'', ''
Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as the ...
'' and '' Tovarich'', and she went ten times to hear
Ethel Merman Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary ''Variety'', February 22, 1984. ...
in '' Annie Get Your Gun''. At school in Far Hills, she herself appeared on stage in productions mounted by a multidisciplinary teacher with a love of music and drama, Betty (Mrs. Harold) Noling. When she was sixteen, her mother took her to the
Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...
to hear
Karl Böhm Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Life and career Education Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...
conducting
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (9 December 19153 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the op ...
and
Christa Ludwig Christa Ludwig (16 March 1928 – 24 April 2021) was a German mezzo-soprano and occasional dramatic soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses, passions, and solos in symp ...
in ''
Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...
''. Despite arriving at the Festspielhaus dishevelled and wet after being driven through the rain in a leaking Volkswagen, she was spellbound by what seemed to her the most beautiful thing that she had ever heard, and she still treasures an autograph that she subsequently solicited from Schwarzkopf after glimpsing her through a restaurant window. She was introduced to much more classical music in her senior high school years in Noroton, where she sang choral works by Mozart,
Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
,
Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pren ...
,
Orlande de Lassus Orlande de Lassus ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palest ...
and
Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...
. Lessard, Suzannah: Flicka; ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', May 7, 1979, p. 35
But neither
Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
nor any of the other composers in the classical pantheon could seduce her away from the kind of music that won her heart in her earliest years. When she entertained her friends and family at one of their gatherings, it was invariably with pop songs or show tunes that she had picked up by ear.Von Buchau, Stephanie: Our friend Flicka; ''Opera News'', April 10, 1971, pg. 26


Young adulthood

After graduating, von Stade was given a sum of money by her grandfather, with the advice to spend it on something better than clothes or a car. Her mother suggested using it to finance a gap year in Paris. She combined waitressing, tending bar and working as a part-time nanny to three children with studying piano at the École Mozart, although she was so embarrassed by the youth and skill of her fellow pupils that she did not persist with her lessons for long.Moritz, Charles (editor): ''Current Biography Yearbook 1977'', H. W. Wilson & Co., 1978, p. 414 She had happier musical experiences hearing Schwarzkopf in recital at the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées () is an entertainment venue standing at 15 avenue Montaigne in Paris. It is situated near Avenue des Champs-Élysées, from which it takes its name. Its eponymous main hall may seat up to 1,905 people, while th ...
and ''
Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' at the Opéra. Once back in New York, she worked as a sales assistant in the stationery department of
Tiffany's Tiffany & Co. (colloquially known as Tiffany's) is a high-end luxury jewelry and specialty retailer, headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It sells jewelry, sterling silver, porcelain, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, watc ...
"I was terrible at it, and kept sending out orders to Houston, Wyoming and Sacramento, Nevada"and took secretarial night classes that led to a job at the American Shakespeare Festival in
Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. Stratford is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was settled ...
. But she also began to investigate the possibility of earning money from her voice. Offering herself as a freelance singer for hire, she found employment in cocktail bars where "customers were not expected to listen, and didn't", and she took part in a promotional
industrial musical An industrial musical is a musical performed internally for the employees or shareholders of a business to create a feeling of being part of a team, to entertain, and/or to educate and motivate the management and salespeople to improve sales and ...
staged for the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...
. Eventually she summoned up enough courage to begin asking for small parts in summer stock musicals. It was not an easy process for her: "You do fifty or sixty auditions and get called back five times and maybe get one job offerif you're lucky." But ultimately her persistence was rewarded when she made her professional stage debut in the
Long Wharf Theatre Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared. Fou ...
,
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
in 1966, playing Beauty in a children's production of ''Beauty and the Beast''. Torn between her growing ambition, her difficulty in acknowledging it, her Catholic guilt over it and her fear of failure, she was unsure whether to commit herself to the training that would be necessary if she were to become the professional singer that she increasingly dreamt of being. Ultimately it was a friend's dare that tipped the balance and led to her approaching a conservatory that happened to be close to her East 73rd Street
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
apartment, New York's
Mannes School of Music Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School cam ...
. Even then, she was still hesitant, initially limiting herself to a part-time course in sight-reading. It was only at the urging of her instructor that she applied to become a full-time student singer. Hoping that she would at least learn how to play the piano well enough to handle pop tunes at parties, she auditioned with ''
Mignon ''Mignon'' is an 1866 ''opéra comique'' (or opera in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's 1795-96 novel '' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre''. The ...
s "Connais tu le pays?", and was accepted into the college's vocal programme. She was funded by help from her family and part-time secretarial work. (While working at the Long Wharf Theatre, she had once put her shorthand and typing skills to good use by spending a day temping as Ethel Merman's PA.) Despite a disappointing evening at a Metropolitan Opera ''
Arabella ''Arabella'', Op. 79, is a lyric comedy, or opera, in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. Performance history It was first performed on 1 July 1933 at the Dr ...
''"Awful, no melody"she chose to make opera her speciality, because it offered the quickest route to a degree. Under the tutelage of Sebastian Engelberg, she discovered talents in herself that she had not anticipated, yet she was still so unsure of herself that she contemplated a switch to nursing. But after
Harold Schonberg Harold Charles Schonberg (29 November 1915 – 26 July 2003) was an American music critic and author. He is best known for his contributions in ''The New York Times'', where he was chief music critic from 1960 to 1980. In 1971, he became the fi ...
wrote an appreciative review of her Lazuli in the college's production of
Chabrier Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier (; 18 January 184113 September 1894) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and pianist. His Bourgeoisie, bourgeois family did not approve of a musical career for him, and he studied law in Paris and then worked ...
's '' L'étoile'' in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''"This little girl has real personality and an interesting voice. She could go places"she found enough self-confidence to enter the Met's 1969 recruitment competition, encouraged by another dare from a friend who wagered $50 on her. Her singing of Charlotte's letter aria from
Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther'' ...
's ''
Werther ''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel ''The S ...
'' got her through to the semi-finals, and the house's general manager,
Rudolf Bing Sir Rudolf Bing, KBE (January 9, 1902 – September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born British opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably being General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York ...
, was so impressed by her in a private audition that he signed her up as a
comprimario A comprimario is a small supporting role in an opera (or a singer who sings those roles). The word is derived from the Italian "''con primario''", or "with the primary", meaning that the ''comprimario'' role (or singer) is not a principal role (or ...
for the next three seasons.


Career


Apprenticeship

Von Stade made the first of her some 300 Met appearances on January 10, 1970 as one of the Three Boys in Mozart's ''
Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that includ ...
'', singing from a basket dangling vertiginously near the top of the proscenium arch: "We were so scared by the time we got down to the stage that we didn't even know what opera we were in". Her later novice roles were Bersi,
Cherubino ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
, Hänsel,
Lola Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lola (fo ...
, Maddalena, Mercédès, Nicklausse, Preziosilla, ''
Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...
s Shepherd, Siébel,
Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...
, Tebaldo, Virginella, a Flowermaiden in ''
Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...
'', an Unborn Child in ''
Die Frau ohne Schatten ' (''The Woman without a Shadow''), Op. 65, is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917. When it premiered at the ...
'', Wowkle ("Part of my job was to zip Tebaldi up before her high B-flats"),
Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...
("The dress was too long, and I kept tripping over it" and a Stéphano whose swordplay almost cost
Franco Corelli Franco Corelli (8 April 1921 – 29 October 2003) was an Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was cel ...
a finger. Her neophyte years at the Met were happy ones: she got on well with the daunting Bing, she was grateful to be coached by
Alberta Masiello Alberta Masiello (20 November 1915 – 25 December 1990), was an assistant-conductor and opera coach at the Metropolitan Opera; a panelist in the Saturday afternoon ''Metropolitan Opera Quiz'' on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, and teac ...
, Walter Taussig and Jan BehrKellow, Brian: Cherubino grows up, ''Opera News'', April 1, 1995, p. 38 and she was fond of coworkers like "Rosie, the wardrobe mistress, Jimmy, the make-up artist, Nina, the wig lady from Aberdeen and dear Artie, my buddy on the stage crew, who always told me I looked great."Von Stade, Frederica: Diary, '' Gramophone'', May 2010, p. 20 Moreover, the Met was an employer generous enough to allow her to moonlight with other companies. In spring 1971, she gave her first performance with the
San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when he ...
as Sesto in an
F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
-inspired production of
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's ''
La clemenza di Tito ' (''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an '' opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. It was started after most of ' (''The Magic Flute''), the last of ...
'', and in the summer, she took part in two productions in Santa Fe: she was Maria in the posthumous premiere of Villa-Lobos's ''
Yerma ''Yerma'' is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1934 and first performed that same year. García Lorca describes the play as "a tragic poem." The play tells the story of a childless woman living in rural S ...
'', and she sang her first Cherubino in a staging of Mozart's ''
Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'' that was notable as the US debut of
Kiri Te Kanawa Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa , (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a retired New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te ...
. According to a historian of the Santa Fe company, "It was two of the newcomers who left the audience dazzled: Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and Kiri Te Kanawa as the Countess. Everyone knew at once that these were brilliant finds. History has confirmed that first impression."Scott, Eleanor: ''The First Twenty Years of the Santa Fe Opera'', The Sunstone Press, 1976 The production was the first of several in which they would work together, and also the start of an enduring friendship. On March 28, 1970, von Stade made her one and only Met appearance as Stéphano in
Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
's '' Roméo et Juliette'' as fourth cover for an indisposed Marcia Baldwin. Among the audience was
Rolf Liebermann Rolf Liebermann (14 September 1910 – 2 January 1999), was a Swiss composer and music administrator. He served as the Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1959 to 1973 and again from 1985 to 1988. He was also Artistic Director of ...
, the director of the State Opera of Hamburg. He enjoyed her performance, and he was impressed by her again when, on another evening at the Met, he heard her as Cherubino on March 11, 1972. About to take charge of the Paris Opera, he was planning to launch his intendancy with a lavishly glamorous production of ''Figaro'' at the
Royal Opera of Versailles The Royal Opera of Versailles () is the main theatre and opera house of the Palace of Versailles. Designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, it is also known as the Théâtre Gabriel. The interior decoration by Augustin Pajou is constructed almost entirely ...
, produced by
Giorgio Strehler Giorgio Strehler (; ; 14 August 1921 – 25 December 1997) was an actor, Italian opera and theatre director. Biography Strehler was born in Barcola, Trieste; His father, Bruno Strehler, was a native of Trieste with family roots in Vienna and died ...
and conducted by
Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-servin ...
.Smith, Patrick J.: Frederica von Stade, musician of the month, ''High Fideliy / Musical America'', December 1973, p. MA-8 Would she like to take her Cherubino to France? She consulted with Rudolf Bing's successor,
Göran Gentele Göran Gentele (29 September 1917 – 18 July 1972) was a Swedish actor, director, and opera manager. He was briefly the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1972. Biography Born in Stockholm, Gentele studied from 19 ...
, who advised her not to renew her contract at the Met but to make the most of what promised to be an extraordinary opportunity: "Zero in on what kind of singer you want to be, and then come back to me". She gave her final performance as a comprimario on June 23, 1972, singing the role of Preziosilla in, aptly,
Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
's ''
La forza del destino ' (; ''The Power of Fate'', often translated ''The Force of Destiny'') is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, ' (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, wi ...
''. In the summer of that year, she returned to Santa Fe for her first Zerlina in Mozart's ''
Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
'' and her first portrayal of the traumatized heroine of
Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
's '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' ("At the point where Pelléas was coming toward me singing 'Je t'aime, je t'aime', I was trying to decide whether to go to a certain pizza parlor after the show"). After recording her first LP in February 1973
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
's ''
Harmoniemesse The ''Harmoniemesse'' in B-flat major by Joseph Haydn, Hob. XXII:14, Novello 6, was written in 1802. It was Haydn's last major work. It is because of the prominence of the winds in this mass and "the German terminology for a kind of wind ensem ...
'', conducted by
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
she crossed the Atlantic to begin preparations for her Paris ''Figaro''. Both the production and her contribution to it were widely acclaimeda French critic wrote that she had the voice of an angelRosenwald, Peter J.: Cinderella of the opera: the fabled slipper fits Frederica von Stade... perfectly, ''
Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
'', September 1979, p. 22
and she was soon receiving offers from many of the world's greatest opera houses. She made her British theatrical debut on July 1 at
Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...
under John Pritchard in another staging of ''Figaro'', singing with her modesty intact despite the wish of her producer, Peter Hall, that she should perform part of the boudoir scene topless. In the autumn, she returned to San Francisco as Dorabella in Mozart's ''
Così fan tutte (''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...
''; and at Christmas, she came back to the Met eighteen months after leaving it, debuting her Rosina in
Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
's ''
Il barbiere di Siviglia ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...
'' as an acknowledged international star. Meeting Marcia Baldwin in later years, she joked that her colleague's night of illness back in 1970 had been singularly serendipitous. "Without you, honey, I would not have had a career."


Baroque opera

Von Stade's first season at Glyndebourne gave her the opportunity to become acquainted with Peter Hall's staging of
Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...
's ''
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria ''Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria'' (Stattkus-Verzeichnis, SV 325, ''The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland'') is an List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, opera consisting of a prologue and five acts (later revised to three), set by Claudio Montever ...
''. She attended each of that summer's seventeen performances of the work. She was enthralled by how he had crafted it"I don't think I've ever had an experience before or since that compared to it"and also by
Janet Baker Dame Janet Abbott Baker (born 21 August 1933) is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.Blyth, Alan, "Baker, Dame Janet (Abbott)" in Sadie, Stanley, ed.; John Tyrell; exec. ed. (2001). ''New Grove Dictionar ...
's Penelope: "If I could project her quiet dignity and devotion in just one of my performances, I'd rejoice for the rest of my life." She was also delighted by
Raymond Leppard Raymond John Leppard (11 August 1927 – 22 October 2019) was a British-American conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of the ...
's extravagant realization of the piece. While acknowledging that his way with baroque scores had been slighted by some musicologists as anachronistic, she relished the appealing vivacity of the results: "I think he brought them alive and gave them a life that made them intensely popular." It was in Leppard's version of ''Ulisse'' that she appeared in her house debut with the
Washington Opera The Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performa ...
(1974) in the piece's first American staging. She was Penelope again in her house debut with the
New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...
(1976), subsequently stepping into Baker's shoes under Leppard's direction at Glyndebourne in 1979 and reprising the role in San Francisco (1990) andin Glen Wilson's austere editionin
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
(1997). She returned to Monteverdi in the autumn of her career, performing the smaller role of the scorned empress Ottavia in ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'' in Houston Grand Opera, Houston (2006) and in Los Angeles (2006). She collaborated with Leppard on an unhappier baroque enterprise in 1980, singing Iphise in a televised, ultra-modernist staging of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Rameau's ''Dardanus (Rameau), Dardanus'' in Paris. One of Leppard's books recounts the project's troubles, which included a clowning violist, an incompetent organist. wire-flown singers who squeaked with terror and a producer and designer who abandoned their creation midway through its run. Von Stade thought the staging so inept that after the exit of its authors, she felt obliged to take control of it and try to repair its infelicities herself.Stearns, David Patrick; Frederica von Stade, '' Gramophone'', May 2016, p. 56 Leppard described the experience as the worst of his conducting life, an agonizing episode that left a permanent scar on his psyche. Handel's ''Serse'' was the only other baroque opera in which von Stade appeared, and the only British opera in her entire curriculum vitae. Singing its title role in a staging by Stephen Wadsworth in Santa Fe in 1993 withoutby her own admissionadequate preparation, she suffered a disastrous memory lapse in the opening lines of her first major aria. (Slightly dyslexic, she sometimes finds learning scores difficult.) "I'm here to tell you that you don't actually die from shame", she said to her manager afterwards. "You might like to, you might wish you couldbut you don't." She revisited ''Serse'' in her house debut at Seattle Opera when Wadsworth's production was revived there in 1997.


18th-century opera

Mozart is von Stade's favourite composer (and also the historical figure whom she most admires). She thinks that Cherubino in ''Le nozze di Figaro'' was to some extent autobiographical: "In many respects he is the spirit of Mozart. That's how I imagine [Mozart] to have acted and looked, from his letters. I think [Cherubino is] very close to his character without the dark side." In particular, she sees the composer and his creation as both "little devils", sharing the "bug-eyed admiration of women" that she remarked in Tom Hulce's portrait of Mozart in the film ''Amadeus (film), Amadeus''.Lipton, Gary D.: Upstairs, Downstairs, ''Opera News'', December 7, 1985, p. 4 Her playful, aristocratic interpretation of the adolescent page, informed by her observations of seven teenaged male cousins,Paolucci, Bridget: A time for soul-searching, ''Opera News'', April 9, 1988, p. 28 was greeted by the eminent record producer Walter LeggeElisabeth Schwarzkopf's husbandas revelatory: "The joy of the evening is Frederica von Stade, an actress of seemingly unlimited resources. I've never seen or heard a better Cherubino."Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth (1982). ''On and Off the Record: A Memoir of Walter Legge''. p. 78: Faber and Faber. . Certainly no role figured in her engagement diary more often. Her early appearances as the ''farfallone amoroso'' were followed by others in Houston (1973), Paris (1974, 1980), Salzburg (house debut 1974, 1975, 1976, 1987), Vienna (house debut 1977), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago (1987, 1991) and San Francisco (1991), and she incarnated him forty-eight times at the Met between 1972 and 1992. Mozart's other Lorenzo Da Ponte, da Ponte operas were less important in her career. She sang Zerlina with the Met in its spring tour in 1974, and Despina in ''Così fan tutte'' in San Francisco (2004) and at the Ravinia Festival (2010). (She admits to not being especially fond of her earlier ''Così'' role, Dorabella.James, Jamie: Birthday interview: Frederica the Great, ''Opera Now'', June 1991, p. 52) But she was often heard in trouser roles in Mozart's ''opera serie''. Her Sesto in San Francisco's 1971 ''La clemenza di Tito'' was followed by further performances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1980), Munich (1981), San Francisco (1993) and Dallas (1999),Spoto, Donald: Flicka in ¾ time, ''Opera News'', March 2000, p. 24 and she La clemenza di Tito (Colin Davis recording), recorded the opera's secondary role of Annio for Colin Davis (1976). In 1982, she returned to the Met after a hiatus of six years to star as Idamante in the house's televised company premiere of ''Idomeneo''. a staging that partnered her with Luciano Pavarotti (one of the singers who she most adores). She revisited the piece with other tenors at the Met (1983, 1986, 1989) and, in concert, at Tanglewood (1991). The seldom performed operas of the 18th century's other great master,
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
, were works in which she was never heard theatrically, but she did contribute to the pioneering series of recordings of them conducted by Antal Doráti. She was an uncharacteristically furious Amaranta in ''La fedeltà premiata (Antal Doráti recording), La fedeltà premiata'' (1975), and Lisetta in the astronomical comedy ''Il mondo della luna (Antal Doráti recording), Il mondo della luna'' (1977).


19th-century Italian opera

Von Stade has often spoken of her special devotion to the Italian operas of the early 1800s. "I love bel canto; it's the core of what singing is about." "I really believe so much in bel canto, and particularly Rossini's music. It does everything that can be accomplished through the voice." "Sometimes what you want to get across is: 'This is hard, but I am fantastic because I can do this.' ... That's what Rossini is". She is identified with Rosina in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' almost as closely as with Cherubino, although she has confessed to loving the Rossini role much less than the Mozart one. "I used to be uncomfortable doing Rosina. … She's usually played as the pert soubrette, with sort of a sharp turn. But I found I can do it within my own terms. Rosina can be wilful one moment, but she can be tender the next." She sang the role twenty-two times at the Met between 1973 and 1992, and also at Covent Garden (house debut 1975) and at La Scala (1976, 1984), in San Francisco (1976, 1992), in Hamburg State Opera, Hamburg (1979), in Vienna (1987, 1988), and in Chicago (1989,1994). Her first La Scala staging was nearly aborted when its producer, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, insisted that she sing the cavatina "Una voce poco fà" unembellished. He relented only when the conductor Thomas Schippers called in the musicologists Philip Gossett and Alberto Zedda to persuade him to allow his weeping prima donna the ornaments and cadenza that she had prepared for him. She finds Rossini's ''La Cenerentola'' a more sympathetic work, enjoying his treatment of Cinderella for more than its "vocal fireworks and slapstick comedy". "Warmth is the message here. As the subtitle says, it's 'la bontà in trionfo', the triumph of goodnessnot goody-goody ''bontà'', but ''bontà'' in the spiritual sense, … the sense that we can be everything to each other. I do feel it as a religious message. My joy is to have the privilege of expressing it. Cenerentola has a certain quality that all the women I play have, a softness. I guess that's what my definition of femininity isthe Cinderella softness." Her Angelina (Cinderella) was heard in San Francisco (1974), in a televised production in Paris (1977) and in Dallas (1979), and also with the company of La Scala when they visited the United States to celebrate the republic's bicentenary (1976). (The Opéra de Paris invited her to participate in their contribution to the US's bicentennial festivities too, performing as Cherubino; she was the only American so honoured by both institutions.) Her interpretation of the role is preserved in a 1981 film of a production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle which, she thought, achieved the opera's goal of making you "feel like your whole inside is smiling". Comic operas were not the only bel canto works in which she performed. In 1978, she joined José Carreras to record Rossini's little known ''Otello (López Cobos recording), Otello'' under Jesús López Cobos. The vocal historian J. B. Steane regarded her interpretation of Desdemona as the "most lovely and suitable of her Rossini singing".J. B. Steane, Steane, J. B. (1998): ''Singers of the Century: Volume 2'', p. 186: Amadeus Press. "The character's tenderness and the music's lyricism asked for just what she had to give." She was also Elena in Rossini's ''La donna del lago'' in the opera's first 20th-century American production in Houston (1981), reprising the role in concert at Carnegie Hall (1982) and theatrically at Covent Garden (1985). In Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini's operas she was heard only rarely, despite her high estimation of them: "If I were a soprano, I would sing nothing but Bellini. I think Bellini comes closest to everything I believe about the greatness of singing." Her Adalgisa in a Met ''Norma (opera), Norma'' (1975) had the misfortune to be paired with an incongruously cast Wagnerian in the opera's title role. Damning the production as "a travesty of Bellini's work both musically and dramatically", Donal Henahan of ''The New York Times'' wrote that Rita Hunter's "monumental proportions and virtual immobility as an actress" were not mitigated by her shrill top notes, her effortful coloratura in "Casta diva" and her being apparently often out of breath. Von Stade's hopes of revisiting the opera with Shirley Verrett came to nothing,Alan Blyth, Blyth, Alan: Frederica von Stade; ''Gramophone'', February 1977, p. 1263 but she did get to sing Amina in ''La Sonnambula'' in San Francisco (1984) and Dallas (1986), performing in a partly transposed version of the score based on that tailored for Maria Malibran.


19th-century French opera

Von Stade became skilled in French while still at school in Noroton, prescribed fifty or sixty pages of Voltaire or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Saint-Exupéry a night by a teacher who banned English speech from her classroom. She finds French music more comfortable to sing than Italian, and she has a high regard for French musical sensibilities: "French music is luscious. … The French have a sense about proportion, and they know what works." In Hector Berlioz, Berlioz, she was Béatrice in concert performances of ''Béatrice et Bénédict'' in Boston (1977) and Carnegie Hall (1977) and in a fully staged production at Tanglewood (1984). In Jacques Offenbach, Offenbach, she sang the title role in ''La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein'' in Los Angeles (2005). In Ambroise Thomas, Thomas, she starred in ''
Mignon ''Mignon'' is an 1866 ''opéra comique'' (or opera in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's 1795-96 novel '' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre''. The ...
'' in Santa Fe (1982) after undertaking the smaller trouser part of Frédéric in the Mignon (Antonio de Almeida recording), recording of the opera conducted by Antonio de Almeida (conductor), Antonio de Almeida (1977). But the composer most important in her French operatic repertory was
Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther'' ...
. "I didn't like Charlotte in ''
Werther ''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel ''The S ...
'' at first", she says. "She seemed cold. I don't think so at all now. … She's seeking freedom of expression. … She's been trained within an inch of her life, trained by the period in which she grew up, by an ill parent. … For Charlotte, responsibility is the message. … Every woman who has a child is never the same, in the most awesome way. It's a privilege, but it's heavy. Since Charlotte has had motherhood passed on to her, she feels it with a certain sense of burden. She's still so young." "It takes courage for her to permit herself to experience the kind of passion she has for Werther." Von Stade sang in her first ''Werther'' in Houston (1979), revisiting the opera at Covent Garden (1980), in Vienna (1987) and at the Met (1988). (Excerpts from the Houston production were included in ''Call Me Flicka'', an hour long BBC television profile of von Stade, first aired on January 18, 1980, that followed her over two years in America, France and England. The programme also included sequences of her singing music by Mozart, Rossini, George Gershwin, Gershwin, Joseph Canteloube, Canteloube, Francis Poulenc, Poulenc and Joni Mitchell.) Von Stade describes ''Cendrillon'', Massenet's Cinderella opera, as "the musical embodiment of the fairy tale as I remember it as a child. The characters are nicely defined and have great humanity." "Pretty party dresses and ball gowns and glass slippers and long hairoh, it couldn't be more fun." In playing Lucette (Cinderella), she felt obliged to exercise a degree of restraint: "I find that with Massenet so much is stated musically, so much romanticism is there, that if you echo it too much in the musical line, it's like being tickled to death. It's too much." She was first seen in ''Cendrillon'' in a televised production in National Arts Centre, Ottawa (1979), and then in Washington (1979, 1988) and, again televised, in La Monnaie, Brussels (house debut 1982) and in Liège (1982).


20th-century French opera

A lighter hearted sequel to ''Le nozze di Figaro'', Massenet's ''
Chérubin ''Chérubin'' is an opera (''comédie chantée'') in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Francis de Croisset and Henri Cain after de Croisset's play of the same name. It was first performed at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 14 F ...
'' gave von Stade the chance to marry her affection for Cherubino to her Francophilia. She thinks the opera "just adorable. It's a little piece of fluff, one of [Massenet's] most charming works. Cherubino ... is now a young man. A beautiful dancer named L'Ensoleillad comes to town, and Chérubin falls madly in love with her. But she is a courtesan and the mistress of the king, and so Chérubin cannot have her. Meanwhile, there is a soubrette character, sort of like Susanna, ... who is in love with him. ... It's typical Massenet, with lots of big dance numbers, and funny counts and countesses running around. ... It's really such a dear piece." She starred in the opera when it received its US premiere in concert in Carnegie Hall (1984) and again, theatrically, in Santa Fe (1989). "There were all sorts of people who wanted to talk me out of doing Mélisande", von Stade said in 1976. "They said I was mad to try it. Now that role fits me like a glove: I love it." She sees the heroine of Debussy's ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' as anything but the "manipulative femme-fatale" that some commentators judge her to be. "She is young, and she's been abused. ... And that's a very special circumstance ... because that makes kids operate a certain way. ... Her lies are lies of necessity. ... I don't think she has any bad intentions. She's young enough to not see some of the consequences of what she might do. ... People want to impose themselves on her and form her to be what they want her to be, and she is just who she is, which is a young, damaged girl." Her 1972 Santa Fe ''Pelléas'' was followed by productions in Geneva (1976), in Paris (1977), at La Scala (1986), in Vienna (1988, 1990), and at Covent Garden (1993). At the Met, she was Mélisande in 1988 and again in 1995, when the house celebrated her quarter century of service to it with a new production of ''Pelléas'' by Jonathan Miller. She has sung the part of the Child in Ravel's ''L'enfant et les sortilèges, L'Enfant et les sortilèges'', but only in semi-staged presentations: one in London's Barbican Centre, Barbican Hall (1991), the other in San Francisco (1999), both presided over by her friend Michael Tilson Thomas. She has, however appeared theatrically in Ravel's other opera, ''L'heure espagnole'', singing the role of Concepción under Seiji Ozawa in Tokyo (2003). In Francis Poulenc, Poulenc's Catholic-themed rarity, ''Dialogues of the Carmelites, Dialogues des Carmélites'', she was Sister Blanche de la Force in a single run of performances at the Met (1983).


German-language opera

The first major role in a German opera that von Stade assumed was Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck (composer), Humperdinck's ''Hansel and Gretel (opera), Hänsel und Gretel''. She played him in eleven child-oriented performances (sung in English) at the Met between 1972 and 1983; that of Christmas 1982 was televised. The rest of her German-language repertoire was drawn from the 20th century. Octavian in Richard Strauss's ''Der Rosenkavalier'', an opera notably richly orchestrated, was a role that tested her lyric voice to its limits but was also one of her especial favourites. "I love that age in boys," she says. "If they feel good about themselves, it comes out. ... Octavian might be boastful, but it's not offensive. Why shouldn't he be boastful? He moves from palace to beautiful palace, head to toe in silver, coming on in that crash of musiche's just too gorgeous to be true. And he's also full of his own sexual pride and discoverythe whole The Graduate, Mrs Robinson thing. I mean, what a gas! To go through that initiation with such a superb woman, not fumbling around with some kid his own age. He's had ''the best'', and it's been done with taste and finesseand great fun." She first portrayed him in Houston (1975), revisiting him at the Holland Festival (1976), in Hamburg (1979), in Paris (1981), on a Met spring tour (1983) and in San Francisco (1993). Her other Richard Strauss role, the Komponist in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', she abandoned after concluding from a production in Hamburg (1983) that it called for a voice with more thrust than hers. The tormented lesbian Countess Martha Geschwitz in Alban Berg's ''Lulu (opera), Lulu'', essayed by her in San Francisco (1998), was another role that was only peripheral to her career, although her interpretation of it was favourably received by critics. But a venture into the world of operetta was more profitable. She had loved Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, Die lustige Witwe ever since one winter in a rural phase of her childhood, when "the fire trucks sprayed water on the ponds to make them smoother for ice skaters. Then the waltz from ''The Merry Widow'' was played over loudspeakers, and I skated around in pure bliss." She cites the work as supporting her belief that light music can be as great in its own way as Mozart's in his. "It has some of the most genuine, emotionally honest music ever composed, and some of the orchestrations just break your heart. It's sweet, but it's also real, with an adorable story that can be by turns funny, tender and harsh." She was Hanna Glawari in Paris (1998), at the Teatro Colón (2001) and in San Francisco (2002). And it was waltzing with the Count Danilo Danilovitsch of Plácido Domingowho had first sung with her in a ''
Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...
'' on a Met visit to Cleveland, Ohio on April 29, 1970that she thought it fitting to bring her thirty years at the Met to a close (2000).


American opera

The opera of her native land was an important component of von Stade's career almost from its beginning. In Houston in 1974, she was the infatuated ingénue Ninasharing the stage with her maternal grandmother in a bit part in the premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's ''The Seagull (opera), The Seagull''. (She is fond of recalling that on opening night, her dressing room was knee deep in roses, all of them for Mrs Clucas.) In Dallas in 1988, she starred as the vulnerable spinster Tina in the televised premiere of
Dominick Argento Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas '' Postcard from Morocco'', '' Miss Havisham's Fire'', ''The Masque of An ...
's ''The Aspern Papers (opera), The Aspern Papers''. In San Francisco in 1994, she was the vicious and manipulative Marquise de Merteuil in the televised premiere of Conrad Susa's ''The Dangerous Liaisons''"I thought, who can compete with Dangerous Liaisons, Glenn Close? So I didn't even try"finally granting the director Frank Corsaro his wish of two decades earlier that she would one day play "a real bitch". In 2014, she starred as the embittered nonagenarian Myrtle Bledsoe in Ricky Ian Gordon's ''A Coffin in Egypt'' in its premiere in Houston, reprising the role at Opera Philadelphia (2014) and at the Chicago Opera Theater (2015) and, in concert, in Wynton Marsalis's Jazz at Lincoln Center (2016). And in 2018, she returned to Opera Philadelphia to create the role of Danny, a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's dementia, in the world premiere of Lembit Beecher's ''Sky on Swings''. The Beecher project was one of her most personal: her aunts Carol and Marjorie had both fallen prey to Alzheimer's, and she hoped that, as well helping its audience to understand the disease better, Beecher's opera would foster empathy for Alzheimer's victims' families. "They're essentially losing someone, only they don't die." Her work on ''Dangerous Liaisons'' in 1994 sparked what turned out to be the most consequential of all her professional relationships. The man whom San Francisco Opera assigned to chauffeur her to promotional interviews was its then head of publicity,
Jake Heggie Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers. B ...
, a 33-year-old aspiring composer. When he introduced her to his settings of three Irish folk-songs"Barb'ry Allen", "He's gone away" and "The leather-winged bat"they struck her as marvellously accomplished, and she immediately set about doing all that she could to advance his career. Eighteen months later, San Francisco Opera commissioned him to work with the writer Terrence McNally on an Dead Man Walking (opera), operatic version of Helen Prejean, Sister Helen Prejean's then recent ''Dead Man Walking (book), Dead Man Walking'' (1993), a bookalso the basis of a Dead Man Walking (film), film starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon (1995)written in the hope of dissuading its readers from supporting capital punishment. Heggie wanted von Stade to play his opera's central role, Sister Helen, but she declined it in favour of his second choice, the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. She was, however, eager to create the role of Mrs Patrick de Rocher, the mother of a man awaiting execution, which Heggie and McNally expanded into "a kind of fulcrum" of the work to take advantage of von Stade's assumption of it. The opera is especially dear to her: she says that there is none that she more enjoys listening to, and she cites McNally as her favourite writer. The piece's implicit condemnation of the United States' retention of the death penalty is a reproof that she wholeheartedly endorses, basing her critique of capital punishment on behaviourism. "If you know nothing but brutality your whole life, it becomes your life. And that is where the mistake is. You can't just remove people, you have to remove what is making them that way, and that's what we're not doing." "Capital punishment is an extreme form of state-sponsored vengeance that only demeans and dehumanizes everyone, and does nothing for the victims' survivors, nothing for society. We're all losers when someone is executed." She was Mrs de Rocher at the world premiere of ''Dead Man Walking (opera), Dead Man Walking'' in San Francisco (2000), at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna (2007) and in Houston (2010). (The San Francisco production was the subject of a KQED (TV), KQED behind-the-scenes documentary, ''And then one night: the making of 'Dead Man Walking, which aired on PBS on January 14, 2002.) Heggie wrote roles for her in two more of his operas: she starred as the celebrated actor Madeline Mitchell in ''Three Decembers'' (originally titled ''Last Acts'') in Houston (2008), at the University of California, Berkeley (2008) and in Hawaii Opera Theatre, Hawaii (house debut 2017), and she was the music teacher and philanthropist Winnie Flato in ''Great Scott (opera), Great Scott'' in Dallas (2015) and San Diego Opera, San Diego (2016).


Musical theatre

Von Stade does not regret her decision to pursue a career in opera rather than in musicals: she knows that if she had been a Broadway singer, she would have had to perform daily rather than just two or three times a week, and she is thankful that she was spared the injury to family life that such an onerous routine entails. Nevertheless, she has never lost the love of musical theatre that took root in her as a child, when the brassy sound of a Broadway band could excite her almost to the point of making her pass out. "I wanted Broadway more than anything," she says. "My heart is on Broadway." "My idea of dying and going to heaven is walking in a Broadway theatre and hearing the overture." When the commercial success of Bernstein's operatically cast recording of ''West Side Story'' proved that there was a market for musical theatre albums sung by the likes of José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa, she was happy to avail herself of the crossover opportunities that Deutsche Grammophon's experiment had opened up for her. The first came in the summer of 1987, when EMI spent half a million dollars recording John McGlinn's musicologically rigorous version of Jerome Kern's ''Show Boat (1988 cast album), Show Boat''.Jerome Kern, Kern, Jerome: ''Show Boat'', with Karla Burns, David Garrison, Lillian Gish, Jerry Hadley, Bruce Hubbard, Nancy Kulp, Robert Nichols (actor), Robert Nichols, Paige O'Hara, von Stade, Teresa Stratas, the Ambrosian Singers, Ambrosian Chorus and the London Sinfonietta, conducted by John McGlinn, EMI CD, CDRIVER1, 1988 As a little girl, she had dressed up in her mother's clothes and sat on her mother's piano to sing "Bill", but EMI cast her not as Julie LaVerne but in the dual roles of Magnolia Hawkes and the adult Kim Ravenal. A Granada Television film, ''The Show Boat Story'', documented the making of the album (although it glossed over the project's loss of Willard White, who decided to reject EMI's offer of the role of Joe because of McGlinn's refusal to censor Oscar Hammerstein II, Oscar Hammerstein's use of what is now conventionally known as the N-word). In 1990, von Stade returned to ''Show Boat'' in ''Flicka and Friends: From Rossini to Show Boat'', a televised concert staged in New York's Avery Fisher Hall, in which Jerry Hadley and Samuel Ramey joined her in singing excerpts from the work. In the autumn of 1987, she recorded a collection of show numbers and pop songs in ''Flicka: Another Side of Frederica von Stade''; the difficulty that she experienced in adapting her technique to the requirements of pop left her with an abiding respect for the singers into whose territory she had trespassed. In December, she starred in the most nearly complete version of ''The Sound of Music (1988 cast album), The Sound of Music'' ever recorded, conducted by Erich Kunzel, after two preparatory concert performances of the piece in Cincinnati. In 1988, she was Hope Harcourt in another John McGlinn recording, a historically scrupulous version of Cole Porter's ''Anything Goes (1989 cast album), Anything Goes''. Her final collaboration with McGlinn was in 1989, when they taped ''My Funny Valentine (Frederica von Stade album), My Funny Valentine: Frederica von Stade Sings Rodgers and Hart''. In 1992, she was Professor Claire de Loone in a semi-staged production of Bernstein's ''On the Town (Michael Tilson Thomas recording), On the Town'' in London that was recorded for release on CD, VHS video cassette and Laserdisc. In 1994, she was reunited with Jerry Hadley and Erich Kunzel to record an anthology of show tunes, ''Puttin' on the Ritz''. In 1999, she was Desiree Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' in Houston, performing a specially revised version of the score that reallocated some music from its Greek Chorus to its principals. And in 2014, she was the Old Lady who was easily assimilated in a semi-staged performance of Bernstein's ''Candide (musical), Candide'' at Tanglewood.


Concert music

Von Stade's concert repertoire included sacred music by Johann Sebastian Bach, J. S. Bach, Handel''Christmas with Flicka'', with Melba Moore, Rex Smith (entertainer), Rex Smith, von Stade and Julius Rudel, Kultur DVD, D2986, 2005 and Mozart. She sang in Mozart's ''Requiem (Mozart), Requiem'' under Carlo Maria Giulini (London, 1989), and she took part in the filmed performance of his ''Great Mass in C minor'' presided over by Bernstein six months before his death (Waldsassen, 1990). It was Bernstein who introduced her to a very different Christian work, Gustav Mahler, Mahler's ''Symphony No. 4 (Mahler), Symphony No. 4'', as she sat beside him on his piano stool and was treated to a private lesson on the song in which it culminates. The symphony's child's-eye vision of paradise entrances her: "I love this concept of heaven that Mahler giveshaving asparagus, and [Saint] Cecilia, and baking the bread. It meant so much to me. being a Catholic." She sang in the symphony under Pierre Boulez (New York, 1974), Claudio Abbado (Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, 1976), Seiji Ozawa (Boston, 1983) and André Previn (Tanglewood, 1996). The other work of Mahler's with which she was particularly closely associated was his song cycle ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'', which she sang under Erich Leinsdorf (New York, 1976) and Ozawa (Boston, 1982). French music was as prominent in her concert career as in her theatrical work. In Berlioz, she was heard in the orchestral version of his song cycle ''Les nuits d'été'' under Ozawa (Boston and New York, 1983) and John Nelson (conductor), John Nelson (Tanglewood, 1992), and she was the mezzo-soprano soloist in ''Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz), Roméo et Juliette'' under James Levine (Ravinia, 1988). In ''La damnation de Faust'', she was Marguerite under Georges Prêtre (La Scala, house debut 1975), Ozawa (Salzburg, 1979, Boston, 1983, New York, 1983 and Tanglewood, 1988) and Georg Solti (New York, 1981), as well as starring in a quasi-operatic staging of the piece produced by Luca Ronconi (La Scala, 1995). In Ernest Chausson, Chausson, she sang in ''Poème de l'amour et de la mer'' under Riccardo Muti (New York, 1985, and Philadelphia, 1988.) In Debussy, she was ''La Damoiselle élue'' under Ozawa (Boston, 1983). And she sang Maurice Ravel, Ravel's song cycle ''Shéhérazade'' under Michael Tilson Thomas (New York, 1975), Ozawa (Boston, 1979), Leonard Slatkin (Washington, 1998) and Hans Graf (Tanglewood, 2005) as well as performing it under Slatkin in her belated, televised debut at the BBC Proms in 2002. (She had been scheduled to star in the festival's Last Night in 2001, but had been thwarted by the grounding of aircraft that followed Al-Qaeda's attack on the United States on September 11.) She sang in the first performances of several works by contemporary American composers. Together with
Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...
, she starred in the premiere of the version of Bernstein's ''Arias and Barcarolles'' orchestrated by Bruce Coughlin (London, 1993). Many of her other premieres were of music that had been composed with her in mind. From
Dominick Argento Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas '' Postcard from Morocco'', '' Miss Havisham's Fire'', ''The Masque of An ...
, there was ''Casa Guidi'' (Minneapolis, 1983); from
Richard Danielpour Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer. Early life Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New E ...
, ''Elegies'' (New York, 1988); from Jake Heggie, "On the road to Christmas" (San Francisco, 1996), ''I shall not live in vain'' (State University of New York, Purchase, 1998), ''Patterns'' (San Francisco, 1999) and ''Paper Wings'' (Louisville, Kentucky, 2000); and from Nathaniel Stookey, ''Into the Bright Lights'' (Kitchener, Ontario, 2009), a cycle of three songs setting poems by von Stade herself about singing, aging and her love of her daughters.


Chamber music and art song

The pianist Charles Wadsworth first met von Stade in 1970, when he was recruiting singers for Gian Carlo Menotti's Festival dei Due Mondi, Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. After auditioning "the usual string of blowzy sopranos with orange hair", he was surprised to be confronted by a figure wearing a hat and gloves who might have just graduated from a prep school, "looking a trifle overly ladylike for one so young. ... I remember thinking that beneath the quiet beauty, one sensed something hidden and exciting. She was like those cool British actresses who suggest a burning intensity under the surface." He duly hired her to sing some Franz Schubert, Schubert, and in 1974 he invited her and her friend Judith Blegen to sing in Alice Tully Hall as guests of his five-year-old Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Subsequently, the Society chose her as the first singer to be admitted to their membership, and commissioned Christine Berl to compose ''Dark Summers'' (1989) for them to perform together. In 1996, Wadsworth invited her to join Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and himself at a concert given in Atlanta as part of the cultural festival associated with the 1996 Summer Olympics, 26th Summer Olympic Games. Von Stade's career as a high-profile recitalist began as early as February 18, 1970, when she shared a bill at the 2 Columbus Circle, New York Cultural Center with George Allen Reid, a young operatic bass: a reviewer reported "a slight, pretty young woman with a fine, somewhat light voice", "a sensitive and canny interpreter of songs, using vocal colorations to reflect textual sentiments." She gave her first
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
recitalrecorded by Columbia, but never releasedAlan Blyth, Blyth, Alan: Here and there: Frederica von Stade, '' Gramophone'', February 1977, p. 1263 in a sold out auditorium on March 5, 1976. A critic from ''The New York Times'' overlooked her forgetting the words of Charles Ives's "Tom sails away" and collapsing on Michael Tilson Thomas's piano in a fit of embarrassed giggles, but spoke for several of his colleagues when he expressed his puzzled disappointment at the "rather peculiar assortment of songs" that she presented. Such strictures notwithstanding, an unapologetic eclecticism remained the essence of her approach to art song throughout her recital career. Frequently performing in small venues in provincial cities as well as in the grandeur of places like Covent Garden or La Scala, she sang arias and songs by, amongst others, Benjamin Britten, Britten, Joseph Canteloube, Canteloube, Debussy, John Dowland, Dowland, Francesco Durante, Durante, Gabriel Fauré, Fauré, Alberto Ginastera, Ginastera, Arthur Honegger, Honegger, Franz Liszt, Liszt, Mahler, Benedetto Marcello, Marcello, Mozart, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Pizzetti, Poulenc, Giacomo Puccini, Puccini, Henry Purcell, Purcell, Ravel, Ottorino Respighi, Respighi, Rossini, Erik Satie, Satie, Alessandro Scarlatti, Arnold Schönberg, Schönberg, Schubert, Robert Schumann, Schumann, Richard Strauss and Antonio Vivaldi, Vivaldi. She was also a zealous evangelist for American composers, including Dominick Argento, Amy Beach, Bernstein, William Bolcom, Aaron Copland, Richard Danielpour, Carol Hall, Richard Hundley, John Musto, Thomas Pasatieri, Ned Rorem, Michael Tilson Thomas, Virgil Thomson and Jake Heggie.''Frederica von Stade: The Complete Columbia Recital Albums'', Sony CD, 88875183412, 2016


Special events

There are several connections between von Stade's family and the world of American politics. Her aunt, Dolly von Stade, was a guest at the Kennedy family, Kennedys' home in Hyannis Port; her father-in-law, Richard J. Elkus, was a friend and diplomatic envoy of President Richard Nixon; her uncle Frederick H. von Stade was an intimate of President George H. W. Bush; and she herself helped to babysit some of Robert F. Kennedy's children when she was a 10-year-old. When a classical singer was needed for a special occasion in Washington, it was often von Stade who was summoned. On December 4, 1973, she went to the White House to entertain President Nixon, Romania's President Nicolae Ceausescu and Nixon's personal barber with an excerpt from the beginning of Act 2 of ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' performed with the Washington Opera Society; it was the last such event mounted there before Nixon's resignation. On January 19, 1977, she took part in the televised "New Spirit" gala presented at the Kennedy Center to celebrate the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter, singing "Take care of this house" from Bernstein's ''1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (musical), 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue'' under the direction of the composer. On January 19, 1985, she sang "Nobles seigneurs, salut" from Giacomo Meyerbeer, Meyerbeer's ''Les Huguenots'' at the televised gala preceding the second inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. On December 27, 1985, she performed for Reagan again when she sang Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Smoke gets in your eyes" and "You are love" in homage to Irene Dunne in the televised gala ''The Kennedy Center Honors: A Tribute to the Performing Arts''. On May 31, 1990, she sang George Gershwin's "Summertime (George Gershwin song), Summertime" and numbers from ''Show Boat'' in a recital in the East Room of the White House after a banquet that President George H. W. Bush gave in honour of the Soviet Union's President Mikhail Gorbachev. And on March 8, 2009, she joined Bill Cosby, Lauren Bacall, Denyce Graves, President Barack Obama and others in a 77th birthday Kennedy Center tribute to John F. Kennedy, President Kennedy's brother Ted Kennedy, Ted. Reminiscing about her visits to the White House, she said that she had felt equally proud to be invited there whoever was in office, but she singled out Ronald and Nancy Reagan as a First Couple who had treated her with particular kindness. "I'm all for TV," von Stade says, "I really am. ... It brings opera to many more people than would ever be able to go [and hear a performance in an opera house]." Several of the films and televised operas and concerts in which she starred have been issued on home media, and are listed in the discography below. Some of the remainder have been made accessible in whole or in part online, including a concert with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops (June 4, 1987): a gala celebrating Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday (Tanglewood, August 25, 1988); a benefit concert for Polio-Plus (Musikverein, Vienna, September 4, 1988); ''Great Performers at Avery Fisher Hall: Flicka and Friends: From Rossini to Show Boat'' (April 18, 1990); a concert in Oslo presented in conjunction with Elie Wiesel's conference on "The Anatomy of Hate" (August 28, 1990); ''Great Performers at Lincoln Center: A Celebration of the American Musical'' (Avery Fisher Hall, April 7, 1997); and a Metropolitan Opera gala in honour of Joseph Volpe (opera manager), Joseph Volpe (May 20, 2006). Among other televised events in which von Stade took part, as yet inaccessible online, were ''Mostly Mozart Festival: An Evening of Mostly Mozart'' (Avery Fisher Hall, July 13, 1988); ''Great Performers at Lincoln Center: A Christmas Gala'' (Avery Fisher Hall, December 19, 1990); the sixteenth gala of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation (Avery Fisher Hall, November 10, 1991); a benefit gala to raise funds for the rebuilding of the Liceu, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, after its destruction by fire on January 31, 1994 (Palau Sant Jordi, March 17, 1994); ''A Grand Night for Singing: Public Television's Gift to You'', a concert of classical and popular music hosted by Tyne Daly (March 9, 1996); the ''Golden Gate Gala'' celebrating the reopening of the War Memorial Opera House after repairs necessitated by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (San Francisco, recorded September 5, 1997, aired December 5, 1997); ''Gershwin at 100'', a concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas (Carnegie Hall, September 23, 1998); the ''Opening Night of the 33rd Annual Mostly Mozart Festival'' (Avery Fisher Hall, July 28, 1999); the first concert at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (December 16, 2001); and a concert with John Williams and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra given to celebrate the opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics, 19th Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (February 9, 2002). In 2019, von Stade joined Kiri Te Kanawa on the jury of the 19th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. At the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 18, 2005, she was herself a contender in "Emmy Idol", a parody of ''American Idol'', which challenged a heterogeneous group of niche celebrities to compete against one another in performances of the title themes from classic television shows. Megan Mullally and Donald Trump championed ''Green Acres'', Kristen Bell ''Fame (1982 TV series), Fame'', Gary Dourdan and Macy Gray ''The Jeffersons'' and von Stade and William Shatner ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek''. The winners were Mullally and the future US President.


Semi-retirement

In 2010, with the birth of her first grandchild expected in the month in which she would turn sixty-five, von Stade began to step back from performing full-time. "There was a point where all of a sudden I started feeling like I was dressed up in my daughter's prom dress with a big bow on the back. I was getting tired of all the stuff that goes with the business. I always loved singing, but getting there and doing the dress and the hairthat just started to grate on me." "Right now, sitting on a train from the airport, on my way home after days of travel, I haven't even a glimmer of regret." She gave a series of valedictory recitals in venues across the United States, often with Jake Heggie as her pianist and sometimes performing duets with Kiri Te Kanawa or Samuel Ramey.Page, Tim: How strange the change from major to minor, ''Opera News'', April 2010, p. 32 During her years at the Met, she had participated in concerts in honour of Plácido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Nicolai Gedda, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Alfredo Kraus, James Levine, Mrs John Barry Ryan and Joseph Volpe (opera manager), Joseph Volpe: her own turn to be lauded by the company came on April 20, when she was the guest of honour at the Metropolitan Opera Guild's 75th annual luncheon in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria New York. Tributes to her were led by Vladimir Chernov, Marilyn Horne, Evelyn Lear and her first Pelléas et Mélisande, Pelléas, Richard Stilwell (bass-baritone), Richard Stilwell. Thomas Hampson paid his compliments in song, serenading her with Mozart's "Voi che sapete", Mahler's "Liebst Du um Schönheit" and Jerome Kern's "All the things you are". On April 22, she was joined by Ramey, Stilwell, Emil Miland and Martin Katz in a final, autobiographically themed recital at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, singing a duet with her pregnant daughter as one of her encores. On February 6, 2011, her last appearance as Mrs de Rocher in ''Dead Man Walking'' at Houston Grand Opera concluded in a ceremony in which she was made an honorary member of HGO's board and presented with the company's inaugural Silver Rose Award, an allusion to her first appearance as Octavian in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' in a Houston production thirty-six years previously. (Costumed in Mrs de Rocher's pathetic dowdiness, she began her speech of thanks by saying that she wished she was wearing another dress.) On December 3, 2011, Cal Performances, San Francisco Performances, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music jointly presented ''Celebrating Frederica von Stade'', a gala at the Herbst Theatre featuring Zheng Cao, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Jake Heggie, Samuel Ramey, Richard Stilwell, Kiri Te Kanawa and Marilyn Horne, the latter attending courtesy not, as she noted, of the Metropolitan Opera but of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Sloan-Kettering and Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins. The proceeds of the event were donated to two of the charities with which von Stade was particularly associated.


Personal life


Marriage and children

At Mannes, von Stade met Peter Elkus, Peter K. Elkus (b. 1939), bass-baritone, photographer and, later, teacher, a son of Richard J. Elkus, chairman of Ampex. Von Stade and Elkus were married in Paris in the spring of 1973. In 1976, they moved from their 23rd-floor West Side apartment overlooking the Lincoln Center and the Hudson River to base themselves in a rented house in Paris, not far from the Bois de Boulogne. Their elder daughter was born in 1977; Jenifer Rebecca Elkus was named after a Carol Hall song that von Stade was recording as her baby began to arrive – "She heard her name and figured she'd better come out". Formerly a middle school counselor, Jenny now practises as a clinical psychologist in Virginia, but is also a singer who can be heard duetting with her mother on von Stade's jazz recording Across Your Dreams, ''Frederica von Stade sings Brubeck - Across your dreams''. Anna Lisa Elkus was born in 1980 (delivered, like her sister, by caesarean section). Von Stade's lyric cycle ''Paper Wings'', sung by her on the CD '' The Faces of Love: The Songs of Jake Heggie'', presents vignettes of Lisa's infancy.Heggie, Jake: ''The Faces of Love: The Songs of Jake Heggie''; with Brian Asawa, Zheng Cao, Kristin Clayton, Renée Fleming, Nicolle Foland, Jennifer Larmore, Sylvia McNair, Frederica von Stade, Carol Vaness, Jake Heggie (piano) and Emil Miland (cello); RCA CD, 09026-63484-2; 1999 Now a manager at a global technology company in California, Lisa was a devotee of dance and pop music as a child and has performed as a singer in a rock 'n' roll band.


Divorce, remarriage and grandchildren

As Jenny approached school age, Elkus and von Stade relocated to a Colonial mini-estate near Glen Head, New York, Glen Head on Long Island, not far from von Stade's paternal grandparents' sprawling mansion in the ultra-exclusive enclave of Old Westbury. Elkus coached his wife until 1985: "It's the same old story," said von Stade. "You can't learn to drive from your husband. A husband-and-wife team is a risky thing, ... We thought we were strong enough to defy it, and we weren't." Von Stade filed for divorce in 1990, instigating a courtroom conflict that earned the couple many column inches in newspapers and a place in legal history. Von Stade and Elkus agreed to share custody of their children, but they were unable to negotiate a mutually satisfactory division of their wealth. In the year of their wedding, von Stade's income net of expenses had been just $2,250; by the time that their marriage was dissolved, it had swollen to $621,878. While her growing success was obviously founded partly on the innate qualities of her voice, it was equally plainly attributable partly to her artistry and fame, and Elkus thought that these latter intangibles were part of the couple's marital property and, moreover, assets that he had had a hand in creating. After marrying von Stade, he had given up his own work as a singer in order to travel with her, attend her rehearsals and performances, advise and critique her, photograph her for album covers and magazine articles and help her care for their daughters. He believed that his efforts in support of von Stade's career entitled him not just to a share in the couple's current riches but also to a paymentperhaps as high as $1.5 millionanticipating the money that she would make in the coming years from performing and, possibly, from undertaking celebrity endorsements. Arguing that no such endorsements were in prospect, that she had already been successful before her marriage and that Elkus's coaching had sometimes done her voice more harm than good, von Stade's lawyers asked the Supreme Court of New York County to rule that her career and profile belonged to her and her alone. In an order made on September 26, 1990, Walter M. Schackman, J. found in von Stade's favour, noting that Elkus's self sacrifice in supporting her endeavours had been compensated by a "substantial life style" in which he had "reaped the rewards of his association" with her, and that his services to her would be adequately remunerated by his share of the couple's tangible assets (which included a house valued at almost $1 million). But when Elkus's lawyer appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Rosenberger, J. and four of his colleagues took a different view, overturning the trial court's order in a unanimous judgement handed down on July 2, 1991, that effectively made Elkus a shareholder in von Stade's future. In an analysis of the case that questioned whether the Appellate Division's holding was compatible with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition of involuntary servitude, Janine R. Menhennet, an attorney practising in California, condemned Rosenberger's decision as an insult to von Stade that had invaded the personal nature of her voice and awarded Elkus a part of her very identity. On December 30, 1990, von Stade married fellow divorcee Michael G. Gorman, father of three, a San Francisco manufacturer and, later, banker, no musician but rather, in her words, "a normal dude", whom she had met in 1988. Her second marriage earned her another page in the annals of family law when Elkus returned to the courts to try to prevent her from uprooting their daughters from their settled life on Long Island to form a blended family with their stepfather and stepsister. Once again, Elkus lost the first round of his fight but won the second: despite von Stade's assurances that she would address Elkus's concerns for their children's welfare by hiring a housekeeper, curtailing her travelling and supporting him in visiting them, a New York appellate court reversed the holding of a lower court and found that there was "no compelling reason or exceptional circumstances to justify relocation to California". Ultimately von Stade and Elkus found a way to resolve their difficulties amicably, and Jenny and Lisa joined their mother and stepfamily in a 1910 Tudor Revival house in the middle of Alameda (island), Alameda, a home in which Gorman and von Stade lived for almost a decade before moving to a property on the island's southeast waterfront. Von Stade became a grandmother in June 2010 when Jenny gave birth to the first of her two daughters, Charlotte Frederica. As of March 2019, the Gormans' tally of grandchildren numbered seven.


Faith and philanthropy

Von Stade adopted Roman Catholicism as a child, led to her faith by the influence of her convert maternal grandmother, instructed by the nuns and priests who presided over most of her schooling and attracted by the theatricality of Catholic ritual. She has remained a committed member of her church throughout her life, latterly as a regular worshipper at Alameda's Basilica of St Joseph. It is Catholicism which has provided her with her framework for interpreting the world, reconciled her to her experience of suffering and both inspired and guided her work as an artist and philanthropist. She summed up her credo in 2000: "We are all from God. And since we are from God, there must be ... no obstacle, really, between Him and us. I keep thinking that I have to put away anything that stands in the way of my ... vocation, which is singing and sharing music. ... It's the art form closest to prayer, and therefore to the journey toward God, precisely because it comes from a very deep point inside. Singingboth what we sing and how we sing itshows all the flaws, all the neediness of our humanity. And it can reveal all our best possibilities too." The charitable endeavours through which she has expressed her Christianity have mainly addressed social issues in the poorer districts of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1992, she began attending dinners and auctions sponsored by Financial Aid for Catholic Education. It was at one of these that she met Carol Cole and David Barlow, who were setting up a refuge to nurture vulnerable mothers and children in a troubled part of Oakland, California, Oakland. Operated in accordance with Rudolf Steiner's doctrine of Anthroposophy, the Sophia Project sheltered dozens of families from 1999 to 2014: von Stade served it as a fundraiser, as a member of its board of directors and occasionally as a gardener. She has spoken warmly of its residents, "women … who have no money or resources. They just keep getting up in the morning with that weight on their heads. I don't know how they do it." She believes that the fundamental cause of America's social problems is the inadequacy of its education system. In 2007, she began developing, paying for and participating in a music programme at the St Martin de Porres parochial elementary school in Oakland after meeting its president, Sister Barbara Dawson, at one of FACE's events. (Sister Barbara was a member of the same Convent of the Sacred Heart that had provided von Stade with much of her own education.) As well as being taught choral singing by von Stade herself, the children at St Martinresidents of one of Oakland's most disadvantaged neighbourhoodswere offered lessons in dancing, the violin, the guitar and the piano, and were treated to visits by Chanticleer (ensemble), Chanticleer and students from the San Francisco Conservatory performing their staging of ''Hänsel und Gretel''. Von Stade also took a group of 8th-graders to the War Memorial Opera House to be introduced to ''Don Giovanni''. In 2009, five of the school's pupils accompanied her on her journey to Washington to perform at the birthday celebrations of Ted Kennedy, with the expenses of their journey defrayed by the proceeds of benefit concerts that she had organized. When the Bishop of Oakland closed the school in 2017 as part of a diocese-wide rationalization, she described herself as heartbroken. A secular educational programme that von Stade espoused in parallel with her work at St Martin de Porres has proved more enduring. A project built chiefly by the late soprano Daisy Newmannamed by von Stade as the contemporary whom she most admiresthe Young Musicians Choral Orchestra (formerly known as the Young Musicians Program) is a project created under the aegis of the University of California, Berkeley. It caters to some seventy children between the ages of ten and eighteen who came from families with an income of less than $25,000 a year. As well as providing them with subsidised tuition in music, it aims to foster their personal development more broadly: its goal is to enable as many of them as possible to proceed either to a music college or a university. "Most of our kids have been homeless," von Stade said in 2018. "You just can't believe their storiesor their lives. Music is a lifeline for them." She helps the YMCO's students by promoting concerts that showcase them, sometimes performing with them herself; on January 31, 2010, for example, listeners to Garrison Keillor's ''A Prairie Home Companion'' heard her singing the Flower Duet from Léo Delibes's ''Lakmé'' with the YMCO's Nicole Rodriguez. She also devotes a large part of her income to meeting the YMCO's running costs. She is involved, too, with similar enterprises inspired by Venezuela's El Sistema, such as the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Longy School of Music's 'Side by Side' orchestra, with which she appeared in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 20, 2015. In 2020, inspired by her experience of working with Jonathan Palant's Dallas Street Choir, von Stade launched the People's Choir of Oakland, which aims to do for her neighbourhood what Palant's organization has done for his: to use collaborative music-making to kindle a greater sense of dignity, hope and joy in people enduring homelessness. Headed by the soprano Nicolle Foland, the choir plans to offer its guests a safe place to rehearse and perform for two hours a week with the support of a music director, a pianist and a music therapist.


Recordings

Von Stade has sung on more than a hundred recordings, including symphonic works, sacred music, operas, musicals, art songs, pop songs, folk songs, jazz and comedy. She has been nominated for a
Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
for best classical vocalist nine times, and her recordings have been honoured with two ''Grand Prix du Disque'' awards, the ''Deutsche Schallplattenpreis'', Italy's ''Premio della Critica Discografica'' and "Best of the Year" citations in ''Stereo Review'' and ''
Opera News ''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...
''. Her personal favourites among her albums are her Arthaus video and Decca audio recordings of ''Le nozze di Figaro'', her EMI ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', her Deutsche Grammophon Mahler ''Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Claudio Abbado 1978 recording), Symphony No. 4'', her pop album ''Flicka - Another side of Frederica von Stade'' and her jazz album ''Across Your Dreams, Frederica von Stade sings Brubeck - Across your dreams''. All of the von Stade recordings first released on vinyl have now been issued on compact disc as well, but five are difficult to find on CD except in boxed collections. These are ''Live! (Frederica von Stade album), Frederica von Stade Live!'', available in the 18-CD set ''Frederica von Stade: The Complete Columbia Recital Albums'' (Sony, 2016), and ''Judith Blegen & Frederica von Stade: Songs, Arias & Duets'', ''Song Recital, Frederica von Stade: Song Recital'', ''Italian Opera Arias, Frederica von Stade: Italian Opera Arias'' and the Mahler album ''Frederica von Stade – Mahler Songs, Songs of a Wayfarer, Rückert-Lieder and songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn'', available in that same anthology and in the 4-CD set ''Frederica von Stade: Duets, Arias, Scenes and Songs'' (Newton Classics, 2012). The two SACDs in the discography are hybrid discs which are compatible with any CD machine. Recordings highlighted in blue are the subject of ancillary articles which deal with their taping, cover art, track listings and release histories and provide summaries of reviews by notable critics including Denis Arnold, Alan Blyth, Edward Greenfield, Richard Freed, George Jellinek, William Mann (critic), William Mann, Stanley Sadie and J. B. Steane.


Albums of music by a single composer

* Casa Guidi (album), Argento: ''Casa Guidi''; conducted by Eiji Oue; recorded May 2001; Reference Recordings. * La damnation de Faust (Georg Solti recording), Berlioz: ''La damnation de Faust''; conducted by Georg Solti; recorded May 1981; Decca. * Arias and Barcarolles, Leonard Bernstein: ''Arias and barcarolles''; conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; recorded September 1993; DG. * Leonard Bernstein: ''The Bernstein songbook''; conducted by Leonard Bernstein; FVS's contribution recorded January 1977; Sony. * On the Town (cast album), Leonard Bernstein: ''On the Town''; conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; recorded June 1992; DG. * Chris Brubeck: ''Convergence''; FVS's contribution conducted by Sara Jobin; copyright 2005; CD/SACD; Koch International Classics. * Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 1, Canteloube: ''Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 1''; conducted by Antonio de Almeida; recorded June 1982; Sony. * Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 2, Canteloube: ''Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 2 & Triptyque''; conducted by Antonio de Almeida; recorded July 1985; Sony. * Danielpour: ''Elegies & Sonnets to Orpheus''; conducted by Roger Nierenberg; recorded September 1998; Sony. * Debussy Mélodies (1980 recording), Debussy: ''Mélodies''; accompanied by Dalton Baldwin; copyright 1980; EMI. * Pelléas et Mélisande (Herbert von Karajan recording), Debussy: ''Pelléas et Mélisande''; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; recorded December 1978; EMI. * Debussy: ''Pelléas et Mélisande''; conducted by Claudio Abbado; recorded live, 28 May 1986; Opera D'Oro. * Dvořák: ''Dvořák in Prague: A Celebration''; conducted by Seiji Ozawa; recorded December 1993; Sony. [Also on DVD] * De Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat (André Previn recording), ''The Three-Cornered Hat''; conducted by André Previn; copyright 1983; Philips. * Fauré: Fauré Mélodies (Frederica von Stade recording), ''Mélodies''; accompanied by Jean-Philippe Collard; recorded December 1981 and June 1982; EMI. * Fauré: ''L'œuvre d'orchestre, Vol. 1''; conducted by Michel Plasson; recorded June 1980; EMI. * Ricky Ian Gordon: ''A coffin in Egypt''; conducted by Timothy Myers; recorded March 2014; Albany Records. * Joseph Haydn: Die Schöpfung & Harmoniemesse (Leonard Bernstein recording), ''Harmoniemesse''; conducted by Leonard Bernstein; recorded February 1973; issued with Haydn's ''The Creation'' as ''Leonard Bernstein: the royal edition No. 36 of 100''; Sony. * La fedeltà premiata (Antal Doráti recording), Joseph Haydn: ''La fedeltà premiata''; conducted by Antal Doráti; recorded June 1975; Philips. * Il mondo della luna (Antal Doráti recording), Joseph Haydn: ''Il mondo della luna''; conducted by Antal Doráti; recorded September 1977; Philips. * Heggie: ''Dead Man Walking''; conducted by Patrick Summers; recorded October 2000; Erato. * Heggie: ''Dead Man Walking''; conducted by Patrick Summers; recorded January and February 2011; Virgin. * Heggie: The Faces of Love: The Songs of Jake Heggie, ''The faces of love, the songs of Jake Heggie''; accompanied by Jake Heggie; recorded 1998 and 1999; RCA. * Heggie: ''Flesh & stone: songs of Jake Heggie''; accompanied by Jake Heggie; copyright 2007; Classical Action. * Heggie: ''Great Scott''; conducted by Patrick Summers; recorded October and November 2015; Erato. * Passing By – Songs by Jake Heggie, Heggie: ''Passing by: songs by Jake Heggie''; accompanied by Jake Heggie; recorded June 2007 and January 2008; Avie. * Heggie: ''Three Decembers''; conducted by Patrick Summers; recorded March 2008; Albany Records. * Hänsel und Gretel (John Pritchard recording), Humperdinck: ''Hänsel und Gretel''; conducted by John Pritchard; recorded June 1978; Sony. * Kern: Show Boat (John McGlinn recording), ''Show Boat''; conducted by John McGlinn; recorded June - August 1987; EMI. * Frederica von Stade - Mahler Songs, Mahler: ''Songs of a Wayfarer, Rückert-Lieder & Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn''; conducted by Andrew Davis; recorded December 1978; Sony. * Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Claudio Abbado 1978 recording), Mahler: ''Symphony No. 4''; conducted by Claudio Abbado; recorded May 1977; DG. * Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Yoel Levi recording), Mahler: ''Symphony No. 4 & Songs of a Wayfarer''; conducted by Yoel Levi; recorded July 1998; Telarc. * Cendrillon (Julius Rudel recording), Massenet: ''Cendrillon''; conducted by Julius Rudel; recorded June 1978; Sony. * Massenet: ''Cendrillon''; conducted by Mario Bernardi; recorded live, July 1979; Celestial Audio. * Massenet: ''Chérubin''; conducted by Henry Lewis; recorded live, February 1984; Voce. * Chérubin (Pinchas Steinberg recording), Massenet: ''Chérubin''; conducted by Pinchas Steinberg; recorded April 1991; RCA. * Werther (Colin Davis recording), Massenet: ''Werther''; conducted by Colin Davis; recorded February 1980; Philips. * A Midsummer Night's Dream (Eugene Ormandy recording), Mendelssohn: ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''; conducted by Eugene Ormandy; recorded April and May 1976; RCA. * A Midsummer Night's Dream (Seiji Ozawa recording), Mendelssohn: ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''; conducted by Seiji Ozawa; recorded October 1992; DG. * Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (Raymond Leppard recording), Monteverdi: ''Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria''; conducted by Raymond Leppard; recorded June 1979; Sony. * La clemenza di Tito (Colin Davis recording), Mozart: ''La clemenza di Tito''; conducted by Colin Davis; recorded July 1976; Philips. * Così fan tutte (Alain Lombard recording), Mozart: ''Così fan tutte''; conducted by Alain Lombard; recorded May 1977; Erato. * Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (Leonard Bernstein film), Mozart: ''Great Mass in C minor'', ''Ave verum corpus'' & ''Exsultate, jubilate''; conducted by Leonard Bernstein; recorded April 1990; DG. [Also on DVD] * Mozart Mass K. 139 (Claudio Abbado recording), Mozart: ''Mass K. 139, "Waisenhausmesse"''; conducted by Claudio Abbado; recorded October 1975; DG. * Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; recorded live, 1974; Opera D'Oro. * Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; recorded live, May 1977, Orfeo * Le nozze di Figaro (Herbert von Karajan recording), Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; recorded April and May 1978; Decca. * Le nozze di Figaro (Solti), Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by Georg Solti; recorded June and December 1981; Decca. * Offenbach Arias and Overtures, Offenbach: ''Arias and overtures''; conducted by Antonio de Almeida; recorded December 1994; RCA. * Anything Goes (John McGlinn recording), Porter: ''Anything goes''; conducted by John McGlinn; recorded August 1988; EMI. * Dardanus (Raymond Leppard recording), Rameau: ''Dardanus''; conducted by Raymond Leppard; recorded November 1980; Erato. * Shéhérazade (Frederica von Stade recording), Ravel: ''Shéhérazade, Chansons madécasses, Mélodies populaires grecques and Mélodies hébraïques''; conducted by Seiji Ozawa; recorded October and November 1979 and April 1980; Sony. * My Funny Valentine (Frederica von Stade album), Rodgers: ''My funny valentine - Frederica von Stade sings Rodgers & Hart''; conducted by John McGlinn; recorded September 1989; EMI. * The Sound of Music (Erich Kunzel recording), Rodgers: ''The Sound of Music''; conducted by Erich Kunzel; recorded December 1987; Telarc. * Rossini: ''Il barbiere di Siviglia''; conducted by Thomas Schippers; recorded live, 31 December 1976; Living Stage. * The Rossini Bicentennial Birthday Gala, Rossini: ''The Rossini bicentennial birthday gala''; conducted by Roger Norrington; recorded February and March 1992; EMI. * Rossini: ''La donna del lago''; conducted by Claudio Scimone; recorded live, 5 October 1981; Ponto. * Otello (Jesus Lopez Cobos recording), Rossini: ''Otello''; conducted by Jesús López Cobos; recorded September 1978; Philips. * Der Rosenkavalier (Edo de Waart recording), Richard Strauss: ''Der Rosenkavalier''; conducted by Edo de Waart; recorded July 1976; Philips. * New Year's Eve Concert 1992: Richard Strauss Gala, Richard Strauss: ''New Year's Eve Concert 1992''; conducted by Claudio Abbado; recorded December 1992; Sony. [Also on DVD] * Mignon (Antonio de Almeida recording), Thomas: ''Mignon''; conducted by Antonio de Almeida; recorded June and July 1977; Sony. * Verdi: ''Don Carlo''; conducted by Francesco Molinari-Pradelli; recorded live, 22 April 1972; Foyer. * Verdi: ''Don Carlo''; conducted by Francesco Molinari-Pradelli; recorded live, 15 June 1972; Living Stage. * Verdi: ''La Traviata''; conducted by Richard Bonynge; recorded live, 22 October 1970; Bella Voce. * Wilberg: ''Requiem & other choral works''; conducted by Craig Jessop; recorded October 2007; Mormon Tabernacle Choir.


Albums of music by more than one composer

* ''Angel heart, a music storybook''; conducted by Michael Morgan, recorded 2011 and 2012; Oxingale Records. * ''Ardis Krainik celebration gala''; recorded live, 20 October 1998; Lyric Opera of Chicago. * Judith Blegen & Frederica von Stade: Songs, Arias & Duets, ''Judith Blegen & Frederica von Stade: Songs, Arias & Duets''; music by Schumann, Chausson, Schubert, Alessandro Scarlatti, Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Brahms, conducted by Charles Wadsworth, recorded November 1974 and January 1975; Sony. * A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert, ''A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert''; conducted by André Previn; recorded December 1991; Sony. [Also on DVD] * ''Dance on a moonbeam, a collection of songs and poems''; recorded 1998; Telarc. * ''Flicka - another side of Frederica von Stade''; music by Richard Rodgers, Mack Gordon, Alan Brandt and Jeremy Lubbock, conducted by Jeremy Lubbock; recorded October 1987; Sony. * Nuits d'été & La damoiselle élue, ''Frederica von Stade: Berlioz - Nuits d'été; Debussy - La damoiselle élue''; conducted by Seiji Ozawa, recorded October 1983; Sony. * Frederica von Stade chante Monteverdi & Cavalli (recording), ''Frederica von Stade chante Monteverdi & Cavalli''; conducted by Raymond Leppard; recorded July 1984; Erato. * French Opera Arias, ''Frederica von Stade: French opera arias''; music by Meyerbeer, Gounod, Berlioz, Massenet, Offenbach and Thomas, conducted by John Pritchard; recorded January 1976; Sony. * Italian Opera Arias, ''Frederica von Stade: Italian opera arias''; music by Monteverdi, Rossini, Paisiello, Broschi and Leoncavallo, conducted by Mario Bernardi; recorded August 1977 and July 1978; Sony. * Live! (Frederica von Stade recording), ''Frederica von Stade Live!''; music by Vivaldi, Durante, Alessandro Scarlatti, Marcello, Rossini, Ravel, Canteloube, Copland, Hundley, Thomson and Hughes, accompanied by Martin Katz; recorded April 1981; Sony. * Across Your Dreams, ''Frederica von Stade sings Brubeck - Across your dreams''; copyright 1996; Telarc. * Mozart & Rossini Arias, ''Frederica von Stade sings Mozart and Rossini''; conducted by Edo de Waart; recorded September 1975; CD/SACD; PentaTone Classics. * Song Recital, ''Frederica von Stade: Song Recital''; music by Dowland, Purcell, Liszt, Debussy, Canteloube and Carol Hall, accompanied by Martin Katz; recorded December 1977; Sony. * ''Frederica von Stade: Recital, Edinburgh 1976''; songs by Dorumsgaard, Mahler, Ives, Poulenc, Britten, Offenbach and Carol Hall, accompanied by Martin Isepp; recorded live, 31 August 1976; Gala. * ''Frederica von Stade: Liederabend, Salzburg 1986''; songs by Fauré, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Copland, Ives, Pasatieri, Canteloube, Schonberg, Poulenc and Offenbach, accompanied by Martin Katz; recorded live, 18 August 1986; Orfeo. * Voyage à Paris, ''Frederica von Stade: Voyage à Paris''; songs by Poulenc, Satie, Debussy, Honegger, Ravel and Messiaen, accompanied by Martin Katz; recorded April 1993; RCA. * Marilyn Horne: Divas in Song, ''Marilyn Horne: Divas in song - a 60th birthday celebration''; accompanied by Martin Katz and others; recorded January 1994; RCA. * Marilyn Horne & Frederica von Stade: Lieder & Duets, ''Marilyn Horne & Frederica von Stade: Dvořák, Schumann, Mendelssohn; Lieder and duets''; accompanied by Martin Katz; recorded July 1992; RCA. * James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala, ''James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala''; conducted by James Levine; recorded April 1996; DG. [Also on DVD] * ''Opera stars in concert: gala concert for Polio-Plus''; conducted by Anton Guadagno; recorded September 1988; Amadeo. * ''Puttin' on the Ritz: the great Hollywood musicals''; conducted by Erich Kunzel; recorded December 1994; Telarc. * A Salute to American Music, ''A salute to American music; the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala XVI''; conducted by James Conlon; recorded November 1991; RCA. * ''Simple gifts''; music by Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Gluck, Puccini, Vaughan Williams, Schubert, Canteloube, Copland, Carol Hall and Bernstein, conducted by Joseph Silverstein; recorded November 1991; Decca. (Also issued as ''A song of thanksgiving''). * ''Songs of the cat''; conducted by Philip Brunelle; copyright 1991; RCA. * ''Pauline Viardot and friends''; recorded February 2006; Opera Rara.


DVDs

* Dvořák in Prague: A Celebration, Dvořák: ''Dvořák in Prague, a celebration''; conducted by Seiji Ozawa; recorded in Smetana Hall in December 1993; Kultur. * Humperdinck: ''Hansel and Gretel''; sung in English; conducted by Thomas Fulton and produced by Nathaniel Merrill; recorded at the Metropolitan Opera in December 1982; Deutsche Grammophon. * Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (Leonard Bernstein film), Mozart: ''Grosse messe c-moll KV427''; conducted by Leonard Bernstein; recorded April 1990; Deutsche Grammophon. * Idomeneo (Luciano Pavarotti film), Mozart: ''Idomeneo''; conducted by James Levine and produced by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; recorded at the Metropolitan Opera in November 1982; Deutsche Grammophon. * Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by John Pritchard and produced by Peter Hall; recorded at Glyndebourne in 1973; Arthaus Musik. * Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by Georg Solti and produced by Giorgio Strehler; recorded in Paris in 1980; Dreamlife. * Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro''; conducted by James Levine and produced by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; recorded at the Metropolitan Opera in December 1985; Metropolitan Opera. * Rossini: ''La Cenerentola''; conducted by Claudio Abbado and produced by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; filmed in Vienna in 1981; Deutsche Grammophon. * New Year's Eve Concert 1992: Richard Strauss Gala, Richard Strauss: ''New Year's Eve Concert 1992 - Richard Strauss Gala''; conducted by Claudio Abbado; recorded in Berlin in 1992; Kultur. * A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert, ''A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert''; conducted by André Previn; recorded December 1991; Kultur. * Christmas with Flicka, ''Christmas with Flicka''; conducted by Julius Rudel; filmed in Austria, copyright 1987; Kultur. * ''Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square'', also issued as ''The Wonder of Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square''; conducted by Craig Jessop and Mack Wilberg; recorded December 2003; MTC. * Glyndebourne Festival Opera: A Gala Evening, ''Glyndebourne Festival Opera: A Gala Evening''; conducted by Andrew Davis and Bernard Haitink; recorded 1992; Image Entertainment. * The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala, ''The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala''; conducted by James Levine et al.; recorded October 1983; Deutsche Grammophon. * The Metropolitan Opera Gala 1991, ''The Metropolitan Opera Gala 1991 - 25th Anniversary at Lincoln Center''; conducted by James Levine; recorded September 1991; Deutsche Grammophon. * James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala, ''James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala''; conducted by James Levine; recorded April 1996; Deutsche Grammophon.


Laserdiscs and VHS videocassettes

*Leonard Bernstein: ''On the Town''; conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; recorded June 1992; Deutsche Grammophon; LD and VHS. *The Rossini Bicentennial Birthday Gala, Rossini: ''The Rossini bicentennial birthday gala''; recorded February and March 1992; EMI; LD and VHS. *''I Hear America Singing''; starring Thomas Hampson; released in January 1997; Kultur; VHS only.


Writings

*Autobiographical essay on ''Le nozze di Figaro'' in Hamilton, David (ed.): ''The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia'': Thames and Hudson; 1987. *Preface to Bretan, Nicolae: ''Dalok Ady Endre verseire: Lieder on Poems by Endre Ady''; Editio Musica Budapest; 1989. *Recipe for Soupe à Sara in Bond, Jules J. (ed.): ''The Metropolitan Opera Cookbook''; Stewart Tabori & Chang; 1994. *Autobiographical notes for ''Voyage à Paris, Frederica von Stade: Voyage à Paris''; RCA Victor Red Seal CD; 1995 *Song: ''And then the setting sun''; music by Jake Heggie; 1996. *Song: ''The car ride to Christmas''; music by Jake Heggie; recorded on ''December celebration: new carols by seven American composers''; Pentatone SACD; 1996. *Song cycle: ''Paper wings''; music by Jake Heggie; recorded on ''The faces of love: the songs of Jake Heggie''; BMG CD; 1997. *Autobiographical essay in Martin, James (ed.): ''How can I find God?: the famous and the not-so-famous consider the quintessential question''; Liguori; 1997. *Song: ''Sophie's song''; music by Jake Heggie; recorded on ''The faces of love: the songs of Jake Heggie''; BMG CD; 1998. *Autobiographical notes for ''French Opera Arias, Frederica von Stade: French opera arias''; Sony CD; 1998. *Autobiographical notes for ''Danielpour: Elegies''; Sony CD; 2001. *Autobiographical introduction to Siberell, Anne: ''Bravo! Brava! A night at the opera''; Oxford University Press; 2001. *Song: ''To my Dad''; music by Jake Heggie; recorded on ''Flesh & Stone: Songs of Jake Heggie''; Classical Action CD; 2004. *Song: ''A hero'' (''Winter roses'' III); music by Jake Heggie; 2004 *Song cycle: ''Into the bright lights''; music by Nathaniel Stookey; AMP; 2009. *Autobiographical essay: ''Gramophone'', May 2010.


Honours

Von Stade was honoured with an award in 1983 at the White House by President Ronald Reagan, Reagan in recognition of her significant contribution to the arts, and by France's second highest honour in the Arts as an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In April 2012, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Boston and Yale, the Mannes School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Georgetown University School of Medicine.


Trivia

In the nineteenth episode of the third season of the CBS cult comedy-drama-fantasy Alaska-set television series ''Northern Exposure'', ''Wake-Up Call'', a beat in which Mary Margaret "Maggie" O'Connell slow-danced with a were-bear in his cave was accompanied by an excerpt from von Stade's Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 1, Columbia recording of the ''Baïlèro'' from Joseph Canteloube, Canteloube's ''Chants d'Auvergne''. The track was among those that appeared on the show's original soundtrack album.


Notes


References


External links


Official Frederica von Stade web site
* * *
Saint Flicka: Frederica Von Stade
*Kellow, Brian

''Opera News'', April 1995 *Spoto, Donald

''Opera News, March 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Von Stade, Frederica 1945 births Living people American operatic mezzo-sopranos Grammy Award winners Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Mannes School of Music alumni Musicians from Somerville, New Jersey People from Tewksbury Township, New Jersey Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences United States National Medal of Arts recipients 20th-century American women opera singers 21st-century American women opera singers Singers from New Jersey Classical musicians from New Jersey