Rosalind Elias was an American mezzo-soprano who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.
18 Facts About Rosalind Elias
1.
2.
Rosalind Elias was best known for creating the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa in 1958.
3.
Rosalind Elias was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the 13th and youngest child of a Lebanese-American family.
4.
Rosalind Elias's father was initially opposed to her performing, but she pleaded for lessons.
5.
Rosalind Elias received her first singing lessons in Lowell from Miss Lillian Sullivan.
6.
Rosalind Elias appeared with the New England Opera from 1948 to 1952.
7.
Rosalind Elias then left for Italy to complete her vocal studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with Luigi Ricci and Nazzareno De Angelis.
8.
Rosalind Elias continued her studies at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in Massachusetts.
9.
Rosalind Elias made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Grimgerde in Wagner's Die Walkure, on February 23,1954.
10.
Rosalind Elias created the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's opera Vanessa on January 15,1958, and the role of Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra by the same composer, for the opening of new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, on September 16,1966.
11.
Rosalind Elias performed abroad, notably as La Cenerentola with Scottish Opera in 1970, as Carmen at the Vienna State Opera in 1972, and as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1975.
12.
In 1984, Rosalind Elias made her New York City Opera debut as Mrs Lovett in a return engagement of Hal Prince's original staging of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
13.
In later years, Rosalind Elias assumed the role of the Old Baroness in Vanessa, first performing the work at the Opera de Monte-Carlo, and later at the Los Angeles Opera in 2004 and at the New York City Opera in 2007.
14.
Still in lustrous voice, Elias played the role of "Heidi Schiller" in a new revival of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical Follies, which ran at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from May 7,2011, to June 19,2011.
15.
Rosalind Elias made her Broadway debut when the musical transferred to Broadway in a limited engagement from August 2011 through January 22,2012.
16.
Rosalind Elias married Lebanese-American attorney and law professor Zyhayr Moghrabi in 1969.
17.
Rosalind Elias had her name and social security number tattooed on her abdomen in case of a disaster.
18.
Rosalind Elias, who had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2019, was admitted to Mount Sinai West on April 30,2020, after suffering breathing problems.