Norma Sharp (born July 20, 1943) is an American operatic soprano. She is known for singing Mozart and Richard Strauss, but also sang Wagner roles at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

. She worked mostly in Germany, made an international career, and has been a professor of voice at the from 1992.

Career

Sharp was born in

Shawnee, Oklahoma Shawnee ( sac, Shânîheki) is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 in 2010, a 4.9 percent increase from the figure of 28,692 in 2000. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical ...

, and studied voice and musicology at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

. She continued her studies on a scholarship at the with Helmut Melchert and at the with Peter Witsch. She was a member of the . Her voice, termed

lyric Lyric may refer to: * Lyrics, the words, often in verse form, which are sung, usually to a melody, and constitute the semantic content of a song * Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that expresses a subjective, personal point of view * Lyric, from ...

and "" ( spinto), led to preferred interpretation of roles in operas by Mozart and Richard Strauss. She appeared in London at

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 sit ...

, in Glasgow at the

Scottish Opera Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. History Scottish O ...

and in 1978 at the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

as Donna Anna 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 Spani ...

''. She sang the part of the countess in Mozart's ' at her debut at La Scala in Milan. Sharp performed at the

from 1977 to 1981, singing parts in the , the centenary performance of Wagner's ' staged by

Patrice Chéreau Patrice Chéreau (; 2 November 1944 – 7 October 2013) was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films '' La Reine Margot'' and ...

in 1976. She appeared as the

Rhine Maiden The Rhinemaidens are the three water-nymphs (''Rheintöchter'' or "Rhine daughters") who appear in Richard Wagner's opera cycle '' Der Ring des Nibelungen''. Their individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde (Floßhilde), although th ...

Woglinde in ' and ', and (Voice of a forest bird) in ''

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

'', also in the version filmed in 1980. 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 '' Parziv ...

'', she sang one of the flower maidens. In recital, she is focused on German romantic and contemporary

Lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...

er, accompanied by pianists such as

Irwin Gage Irwin Gage (September 4, 1939 – April 12, 2018) was an American pianist, specializing in accompanying Lieder. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Gage studied piano, musicology and literature at the University of Michigan and Yale, and later wi ...

, Wilhelm von Grunelius and

Wolfram Rieger Wolfram Rieger is a German classical pianist, who is known internationally as accompanist of singers and in chamber music. Training Born in Waldsassen, Rieger received his first piano lessons from his parents and later from Konrad Pfeiffer in ...

. From 1992 she has been a professor of voice at the in Berlin.

Selected recordings

Sharp appeared in her Bayreuth performances on film – the ''Ring'' cycle filmed in 1980 and ''Parsifal'' in 1982. She sang Waldvogel and Gutrune in the 1983 ''Ring'' digital recording with Marek Janowski conducting the , with

Theo Adam Theo Adam (1 August 1926 – 10 January 2019) was a German operatic bass-baritone and bass singer who had an international career in opera, concert and recital from 1949. He was a member of the Staatsoper Dresden for his entire career, and sang ...

as Wotan,

Jessye Norman Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert ...

as Sieglinde, Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegmund, and René Kollo as Siegfried.

References

External links

*
Norma Sharp
black-international-cinema.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Norma Living people American operatic sopranos 1943 births People from Shawnee, Oklahoma University of Kansas alumni Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg alumni Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln alumni American expatriates in Germany American women academics 21st-century American women