Marie Elizabeth Collier was an Australian operatic soprano.
10 Facts About Marie Collier
1.
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Marie Collier was born in Ballarat, Victoria, to Thomas Robinson Collier, a railway employee, and his wife Annie Marie.
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Marie Collier attended Camberwell High School from 1941 to 1943.
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Marie Collier first came to prominence in March 1952 singing the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana for the National Theatre Opera company in Melbourne.
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Marie Collier studied in Milan in 1955, where she was auditioned by Lord Harewood.
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Marie Collier created the role of Hecuba in Michael Tippett's King Priam which premiered in Coventry in May 1962; and sang the leading roles in the Western premieres of Katerina Ismailova at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and The Makropulos Case at Sadler's Wells.
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Marie Collier is probably best known as being the substitute Tosca in Covent Garden's famous 1965 revival of the 1964 Franco Zeffirelli production of the opera.
8.
When Maria Callas cancelled her appearances in three out of the four scheduled performances, Marie Collier stepped in, to great acclaim.
9.
Marie Collier was noted as Chrysothemis in Sir Georg Solti's acclaimed recording of Richard Strauss's Elektra, with Birgit Nilsson in the title role.
10.
Marie Collier was announced dead on 8 December 1971 due to intracranial hemorrhage and fractured skull in Charing Cross Hospital, London, after falling from a window on her London flat at the age of 44.