Phyllis Curtin was an American soprano and academic teacher who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s.
24 Facts About Phyllis Curtin
2.
Phyllis Curtin is known for her creation of roles in operas by Carlisle Floyd, such as the title role in Susannah and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights.
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Phyllis Curtin was a dedicated song recitalist, who retired from singing in 1984.
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Phyllis Curtin was named Boston University's Dean Emerita, College of Fine Arts in 1991.
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Phyllis Curtin pursued graduate studies in vocal performance under Boris Goldovsky at the New England Conservatory.
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Phyllis Curtin took the surname Curtin from her first husband, whom she divorced after nine years.
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Phyllis Curtin performed several other roles with the company over the next seven years, including Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
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In 1950, Phyllis Curtin performed in the inaugural year of the Peabody Mason Concerts in Boston.
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Phyllis Curtin made her debut with the company on October 22,1953, portraying three roles in the US premiere of Einem's The Trial.
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Phyllis Curtin sang two roles in operas by Carlisle Floyd with the NYCO that she had previously created in their world premieres: the title role in Susannah and Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights.
11.
Phyllis Curtin appeared as Therese in the American premiere of Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tiresias at Brandeis University in 1953.
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Phyllis Curtin returned to Brandeis two years later to portray the title role in Milhaud's Medee.
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Phyllis Curtin made appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, the Cincinnati Opera, the Tanglewood Music Festival, and appeared in concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and The Little Orchestra Society during the 1950s.
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Phyllis Curtin sang Fiordiligi for the NBC Television Opera Theatre in 1960.
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Phyllis Curtin made her first appearance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1965 and her debut at the Seattle Opera in 1969.
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Phyllis Curtin appeared at the La Scala in Milan in 1962, in Cosi fan tutte opposite Teresa Berganza.
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Phyllis Curtin made her Metropolitan Opera debut on November 4,1961, as Fiordiligi to the Ferrando of George Shirley, Dorabella of Rosalind Elias, Guglielmo of Theodor Uppman, Despina of Roberta Peters, and Don Alfonso of Frank Guarrera.
18.
Phyllis Curtin returned frequently as a guest artist at the Met, appearing in such roles as Alice Ford, Countess Almaviva, Donna Anna, Ellen Orford, Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Rosalinde, Salome, and Violetta.
19.
Phyllis Curtin's last Met appearance was on July 6,1973, in the title role of Puccini's Tosca with Enrico Di Giuseppe as Cavaradossi and Ignace Strasfogel conducting.
20.
Phyllis Curtin taught at Yale University and was Artistic Advisor at the Opera Institute at the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music, where she held a Deanship of the Schools for the Arts, as well as Artist-in-Residence at the Tanglewood Music Center where she taught voice for more than fifty years.
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Phyllis Curtin was dean of Boston University's College of Fine Arts from 1983 to 1991, and founded its Opera Institute in 1987.
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Phyllis Curtin married Philip Curtin, a history professor, in 1946.
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Phyllis Curtin died at her home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on June 5,2016, aged 94, having suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and circulatory ailments.
24.
Phyllis Curtin can be seen in staged excerpts from Faust and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.