Deborah Sasson

Deborah Sasson née Deborah Ann O'Brien (born 22 August 1949), is an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress and composer, mostly active in Germany. She graduated Millis High School in 1967. She worked also in pop music. She was Miss Massachusetts in 1971 and a runner up in Miss America the same year...

Life and career

Deborah Ann O'Brien was born in Boston on 22 August 1949. As a teenager she sang in a high school band. After high school where she graduated in 1967, 1967 millis, ma yearbook.she studied classical singing at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio with Ellen Repp and Helen Hodam; she studied further at the New England Conservatory of Music with Gladys Miller, graduating as a Master of Music. She began as a concert singer. She was a finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She made her debut on Broadway in ''Show Boat''. Leonard Bernstein saw her performance and cast her in the role of Maria in a production of his ''West Side Story'' at the Hamburg State Opera in 1979 which started her career in Germany.

She was a member of the ensemble of the Theater Aachen from 1979 to 1982, and appeared as a guest at the am Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Fenice in Venice and the San Francisco Opera. Her roles included Mozart's Despina in ''Così fan tutte'' and Zerlina in ''Don Giovanni'', Donizetti's Norina in ''Don Pasquale'' and Adina ''L'elisir d'amore'', Rossini's Rosina in ''The Barber of Seville'' and Verdi's Gilda in ''Rigoletto''.

Sasson appeared at the Bayreuth Festival as a Flower Maiden in ''Parsifal'' first in 1982, alongside Peter Hofmann in the title role who was to become her husband. She performed the role until 1989. She recorded with Hofmann a duet version of '' Scarborough Fair'' as part of her album ''Rock Classics''.

Sasson later turned to musical theatre again and popular music, and from 1988 has worked in pop music. She has released album such as ''(Carmen) Danger in Her Eyes'' and ''Passion and Pain'' that achieved chart placements. She wrote in 2010, together with Jochen Sautter, a musical ''Das Phantom der Oper'' and appeared in the role of Christine, touring in Germany for several years. Again with Sautter, she wrote a musical ''Der kleine Prinz'', based on ''Le Petit Prince'', in 2015, which was performed at theatres in Germany and Switzerland.

Personal life

She was first married to the conductor Michel Sasson. She was married to the tenor Peter Hofmann from 1983 to 1990.

Sasson gives solo concerts with her own ensemble; she performed in a duo programme with the opera singer Gunther Emmerlich.

Recordings

Sasson appeared in a recording of Mahler's Eighth Symphony from the Tanglewood Music Festival, conducted by Seiji Ozawa in 1980.

References

External links

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Der kleine Prinz


Phantom der Oper


Bio of Deborah Sasson
at the Bayreuth Festival website; re-publication of the entry in ''Großes Sängerlexikon, Third Edition'' (1999)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasson, Deborah
Living people
Musicians from Boston
German musical theatre actresses
American operatic sopranos
American women pop singers
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women