1. Joyce Arleen Auger was an American coloratura soprano, known for her interpretations of works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Monteverdi, Mozart, and Schubert.
30 Facts About Arleen Auger
1. 2.
Arleen Auger won a posthumous Grammy Award for "Best Classical Vocal Performance" in 1994.
3.
Arleen Auger's father, Everett Auger, was a noted minister who emigrated from Canada with his wife Doris.
4.
Arleen Auger received a BA in Education from California State University at Long Beach in 1963.
5.
Arleen Auger continued work as a teacher and took on church and synagogue singing jobs on weekends.
6.
Arleen Auger made her professional debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
7.
In 1967, Auger was teaching first grade in Los Angeles when she won the I Victor Fuchs Competition.
8.
Arleen Auger auditioned with Queen of the Night arias from Mozart's The Magic Flute and Olympia's aria from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann.
9.
Arleen Auger was signed by the Vienna State Opera and made her debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute conducted by Josef Krips.
10.
Arleen Auger took part in a broadcast from Cologne of The Pirates of Penzance at Whitsun 1972.
11.
Arleen Auger returned to America in 1969 to perform in the New York City Opera.
12.
In 1974, Arleen Auger left the Vienna State Opera to pursue her career in concert and devote more time to teaching at the Salzburg Mozarteum, where she was a professor in the early-1970s.
13.
Arleen Auger continued to sing recitals, in oratorios, and in opera.
14.
Arleen Auger made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1978 as Marzelline in Fidelio under Karl Bohm.
15.
Arleen Auger travelled to Japan in the mid-1970s with Helmuth Rilling to perform as a soloist in Bach's St Matthew Passion.
16.
Arleen Auger performed most of the soprano parts in Helmuth Rilling's Bach cantata cycle of the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, with several appearances at Rilling's Oregon Bach Festival.
17.
Arleen Auger commissioned new song cycles by Libby Larsen and Judith Lang Zaimont.
18.
Arleen Auger sang Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate at the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in 1986 during the signing of the register.
19.
Arleen Auger recorded the Exsultate, jubilate along with the Great Mass in C minor under Leonard Bernstein in 1990.
20.
In May 1991, Arleen Auger triumphed as a featured soloist with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, performing the Mass in B minor, Sheep may safely graze, and other works at the Choir's annual Festival.
21.
Arleen Auger retired in February 1992, after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in the right parietal lobe of her brain.
22.
Arleen Auger underwent three brain surgeries, flying to the US to receive medical attention at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
23.
Arleen Auger was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
24.
Arleen Auger was married to a German historian from 1970 to 1986.
25.
Arleen Auger made nearly 200 recordings throughout her career, ranging from works by Bach, Mozart and Handel to offbeat opera and song projects.
26.
Arleen Auger's discography includes the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss, recorded with Andre Previn and the Vienna Philharmonic.
27.
In March 1990, Arleen Auger recorded Haydn's Creation for EMI with Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
28.
Arleen Auger registered an EMI album with Rattle and his orchestra of Mahler's Symphony No 2 and Berg's Lulu Suite.
29.
Arleen Auger sang the lead role in a Virgin Classics recording of Monteverdi's work L'Incoronazione di Poppea, as well as Schubert's songs with fortepianist Lambert Orkis.
30.
For Deutsche Grammophon, Arleen Auger recorded Handel's Messiah with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert, the Dixit Dominus of Handel with Simon Preston and the Westminster Abbey Chorus and Orchestra, and Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate, Coronation Mass and Vespers with Leonard Bernstein and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.