Blanche Thebom

Blanche Thebom ( born September 19, 1915 in Monessen, Pennsylvania, † March 23 2010 in San Francisco) was an American opera singer of the vocal ranges mezzo- soprano and alto, which was primarily known as a Wagner singer.

Life

Thebom was the daughter of Swedish immigrants. She grew up in Canton ( Ohio). When she with her parents visited by boat Sweden in the 1930s, the pianist Kosti Vehanen discovered her talent and gave it to the mezzo-soprano Edyth Walker, who became her main teacher.

She gave her first concert in January 1941 in New York with a program of works by Jules Massenet, George Frideric Handel, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, and Johannes Brahms.

She made her debut as an opera singer in November 1944 in a performance of the Metropolitan Opera in Philadelphia Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde. The following month, she sang at the Met as Fricka in Die Walküre. In 1957 she undertook a tour of the Soviet Union, where she gave the title role in Carmen, among others, at the Bolshoi Theatre. Her repertoire also included as Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore, Amneris in Aida or. Until 1967, she appeared in more than 350 performances of the Met. Later, she gave concerts with soprano Eleanor Steber. In 1967 she was artistic director of the Atlanta Municipal Theatre. After its closure, she founded the Southern Regional Opera in Atlanta.

From 1973 she taught voice at the University of Arkansas. In San Francisco, where they last lived, she gave private lessons.

Blanche Thebom was married to Richard Metz, the marriage ended in divorce.