Lili Chookasian

Lili Chookasian ( born August 1, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, † April 10, 2012 in Branford, Connecticut) was an American opera singer in the vocal range alto.

Life

Chookasian was born as Lillian Phoebe Chookasian as the daughter of Armenian immigrants; her grandparents had died in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire as a victim of the Armenian genocide. Chookasians father was a machinist and toolmaker; the family spoke at home Armenian.

Chookasian singing since her youth as a soloist at Kirchenkonzenten of the Armenian Church in Chicago. She studied in Chicago singing with Philip Manuel and later with the famous soprano Rosa Ponselle in Baltimore; with Ponselle it works on, among others, the roles of Amneris in Aida and Azucena in Il trovatore. She sang first of the radio; her professional debut was in the 1940s in the broadcast Hymns of All Churches, which was broadcast nationwide by Columbia Network. In the next decade, she appeared in Chicago as a concert singer. She taught voice at Northwestern University.

In 1955 she gave her debut in Chicago as a concert singer; she sang under the baton of Bruno Walter, the alto solo in the Resurrection Symphony by Gustav Mahler with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1959, their late opera debut at the Arkansas State Opera as Adalgisa in the opera Norma. In 1961 she sang with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor Thomas Schippers, the Spoleto Festival, the solo in the cantata Alexander Nevsky, Op 78 for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra by Sergei Prokofiev. Schippers had canceled the already committed for the solo singer role after an audition Chookasians in Baltimore and entrusted the role instead Chookasian. At the Spoleto Festival in 1961 she sang Herodias in Salome and in 1962 the Princess Clarissa in The Love for Three Oranges. Further appearances in Italy, she gave in 1961 at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and 1962 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, respectively, in the role of Herodias.

In 1962 she was engaged at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Her debut was there on 9 March 1962 in the role of La Cieca in the opera La Gioconda. Between 1962 and 1986 Chookasian occurred at the MET on in a total of 290 performances. Her roles there included Azucena, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera (1972/1973), Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Frugola in Suor Angelica, Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana, Mary in The Flying Dutchman, Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, mother and witch in Hansel and Gretel, nurse in Boris Godunov, Filipjewna in Eugene Onegin, Marthe Schwerdtlein in Faust, Geneviève in Pelléas et Melisande and Madelon in Andrea Chénier (1977).

In 1984 she suffered during a performance of the opera Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny in which she sang the role of Leokadja Begbick widow on the stage a heart attack and was unable to finish the performance. Then reduced Chookasian their opera performances. Her last performance at the Met was on 17 May 1986 as Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod.

Multiple Chookasian appeared in operas by Gian Carlo Menotti. 1963 sang the role of Madame Flora in The Medium at the New York City Centre Opera; in this role, she joined in 1967, also at the Cincinnati Opera. In January 1964, she sang at the Met in the Maharani Menotti's opera The Last Savage at the American premiere.

Chookasian appeared at the Bayreuth Festival (1965, as Mary, Erda in Der Ring des Nibelungen and 1 Norn in Götterdämmerung ), in Montreal (1966 ), at the Opera House of Philadelphia ( 1966/1967 as Ulrica ), at the San Francisco Opera (1970 as Mrs. Quickly), at the opera house of Mexico City ( in 1973 as Amneris, Palacio de Bellas Artes), at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (1973, as Erda in Siegfried ) and at the Opera House of Baltimore (1976 as Queen in the opera Ines de Castro by Thomas Pasatieri ).

Chookasian was considered significant concert singer. In particular, they appeared again and again as an interpreter of the works of Gustav Mahler. In addition to Alt- games in Mahler's symphonies she sang The Song of the Earth, the Kindertotenlieder and Song of Lamentation.

The mid- 1980s, Chookasian retired from her active singing career. One of her last major concert appearances was in 1984, the alto solo in Verdi's Requiem at the Waterloo Festival in New Jersey. From 1985 taught Chookasian singing at the Yale School of Music.

Private

1941 married Chookasian their compatriot George Gavejian († 1987). The marriage produced three children, two sons and a daughter.

1956 ill Chookasian first time from breast cancer; it was promised a life expectancy of six months. Chookasian opted for a mastectomy; a second mastectomy she underwent in 1961 after cancer was found again. Your illness, in the 1960s, a taboo subject, Chookasian kept secret in artistic circles. Your originally been planned for the 1961 season MET debut could not compete Chookasian due to their illness.

Chookasian died at the age of 90 years at her home in Branford, Connecticut.

Voice and sound files

Chookasian was one of the most important altos her generation. Her voice can be described as a true contralto. She had a "big, deep voice, similar with velvety timbre, the sound of a cello ." Her voice was " dark and dramatic power ."

Chookasians concert repertoire is largely captured on sound recordings. Mahler's Song of the Earth, she played in 1966 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of a Eugene Ormandy. Under the baton of Leonard Bernstein Chookasian sang the alto solos in the Resurrection Symphony ( Symphony in C minor ) and in the 8th Symphony, the Symphony of a Thousand, ( Symphony in E flat major ) by Gustav Mahler, each appeared in Columbia -CBS. With Bernstein took on Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a recording of Verdi's Requiem was.

Opera recordings with Chookasian exist relatively few. At Deutsche Grammophon they can be heard as a first Norn in Herbert von Karajan's complete recording of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen ( 1969/1970 ). Live recordings of the opera Roberto Devereux (1965, with Chookasian as Sara ) and Un ballo in maschera (1973, from the MET with Cornell MacNeil as partner) have since been released on CD.