Arleen Auger
Arleen Augér (* September 13 1939 in South Gate, California, † June 10, 1993 in Leusden, Netherlands) was an American soprano.
Life
As a teenager, Arleen Augér sang in the church choir and took piano and violin lessons. In 1963 she completed her studies at California State University, Long Beach, then decided to study singing but what they until 1967 in Chicago at Ralph Errolle also did in 1963.
She became known in 1967 through a series of concerts which she gave along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Although they only had three pieces to this point in their repertoire, gave her Josef Krips, a conductor of the Vienna State Opera (Director Egon Hilbert ), in the same year a contract in Vienna. There she had her debut in the role of Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. In the following years it took more than a dozen new roles in her repertoire, including the role of Konstanze in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, the role of Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto and the role of Marie in Donizetti's La fille you régiment at the Volksoper Vienna. In 1969 she was offered a contract on the New York City Opera and in Salzburg in 1970, both as a coloratura soprano in the role of Queen of the Night.
In 1974 she moved to Frankfurt and took more lyrical roles in their repertoire. In 1975, she went to the La Scala in Milan and then to various theaters in Europe, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
As a soprano interpreter in the recordings of the complete Bach cantatas with Helmuth Rilling gradually replaced in the 1970s from the then leading Bach singer Agnes Giebel.
From 1971 to 1977 she taught voice at the University in Frankfurt am Main, where she moved in 1974. Later, she also taught at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
On July 23, 1986, another highlight of her career with her wedding singing at the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London, where she sang Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate. She took this piece in April 1990 also live as a film on - along with the Great Mass in C minor by Mozart - under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Arleen Augér was also a significant song interpreter. Their excellent coloratura technique is documented on 200 LP and CD recordings.
She was married twice; both marriages ended in divorce.
Auger died of a malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma), who was diagnosed in February 1992 with her. On 30 May 1993, the soprano fell into a coma from which she never awoke until her death.