Tatiana Troyanos
Tatiana Troyanos (Greek: Τατιάνα Τρωϊάνου, Tatiána Trōïánou, pronounced [tatˈjana troˈjanu], September 12, 1938 – August 21, 1993) was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent.
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[edit] Early life
Born in New York City, Troyanos grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, where she attended Forest Hills High School.[1] In high school, her nickname was "Totsie." [1]
Before making her operatic debut, Troyanos appeared as a chorus member in the original production of The Sound of Music.
[edit] Professional career
In 1963, Troyanos made her professional operatic debut at the New York City Opera as Hippolyta in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The next year, she sang the role of Marina Mnishek in that company's first production of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, as well as a variety of other roles over the next several seasons. She left to spend ten years at the Hamburg State Opera before coming home to make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in 1976. [2]
A mainstay and "one of the most beloved artists at the Metropolitan Opera" [3] from 1976 to her death in 1993, she was internationally revered for her uniquely sensual, burnished sound, her versatility and beauty, as well as the thrilling intensity of all her performances. In the early 1980s, Troyanos appeared in several opening-night performances at that house including Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma (opposite Renata Scotto), Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and Didon in Berlioz's Les Troyens.
The many and varied roles she portrayed on stage also included Monteverdi's Poppea (in Il coronazione di Poppea); Cavalli's Diana (in La Calisto); Handel's Ariodante and Giulio Cesare (in the operas of the same names); Purcell's Dido (in Dido and Aeneas); Mozart's Cherubino (in Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (in Don Giovanni), Dorabella (in Così fan tutte), and Sesto (in La Clemenza di Tito); Bellini's Romeo (in I Capuleti e i Montecchi); Donizetti's Giovanna Seymour (in Anna Bolena) and Maffio Orsini (in Lucrezia Borgia); Verdi's Amneris (in Aida) and Eboli (in Don Carlo); Wagner's Brangäne (in Tristan und Isolde), Fricka (in Das Rheingold), Waltraute (in Götterdämmerung), and Kundry (in Parsifal); Humperdinck's Hansel (in Hansel and Gretel); Richard Strauss's Composer (in Ariadne auf Naxos) and Clairon (in Capriccio); Johann Strauss's Prince Orlofsky (in Die Fledermaus); Saint-Saëns' Dalila (in Samson et Dalila), Massenet's Charlotte (in Werther); Offenbach's Giulietta (in Les contes d'Hoffmann); Mascagni's Santuzza (in Cavalleria Rusticana); Berg's Countess Geschwitz (in Lulu); Bartok's Judith (in Bluebeard's Castle); Stravinsky's Jocasta (in Oedipus Rex) and Baba the Turk (in The Rake's Progress); Penderecki's Jeanne (in The Devils of Loudun); and Glass's Isabella (in The Voyage).
In 1984 she sang with the Boston Symphony in the world premiere of Act I of Rachmaninoff's opera Monna Vanna, which had been left in piano score by the composer and orchestrated by Igor Buketoff.
She may be most famous for her Met renditions of Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser in the 1980's (and especially the 1984 "Live from the Met" video recording with Richard Cassilly), a part she sang 21 times at the Met from 1978 thru 1992.
[edit] Discography
Troyanos also enjoyed an equally versatile career as a recording artist, appearing in the title role of Sir Georg Solti's acclaimed recording of Bizet's Carmen, Cherubino in Karl Böhm's 1968 recording of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and as Anita in Leonard Bernstein's high-profile operatic recording of West Side Story, among others.
[edit] Illness
Troyanos died August 21st, 1993 at the age of 54 in New York City from breast cancer, which had metastasized to her liver. She had successfully concealed her illness from the vast majority of her colleagues, having sung her last Met performance May 1st of that year as Waltraute to Gwyneth Jones' Brünnhilde in Wagner's epic Götterdämmerung. She is buried in Pinelawn Cemetery on Long Island. In 1994, the Metropolitan Opera performed a concert in memory of Troyanos; in his tribute, Music Director James Levine wrote, "The idea that we are gathered here ... to pay memorial tribute to Tatiana Troyanos is incomprehensible. What it means, of course, is that our Metropolitan Opera family has lost one of the most important, beloved artists and friends in its entire history."
Troyanos was one of three female opera stars of international stature who succumbed to cancer in 1993 in or near their 54th year. The other were sopranos Lucia Popp and Arleen Auger.
[edit] Voice
On a Metropolitan Opera broadcast tribute, Cori Ellison said: "In a way, everything we need to know about Tatiana Troyanos is right there in that astonishing, instantly recognizable voice - generous, driven, dark, sumptuous, noble, vulnerable, haunted, ardent, earthy, otherworldly, eccentric, supple, brilliant, and most of all, beautiful. [. . .] if you love it, you can’t get enough of it, and you love it as much for the feelings it evokes as for its sheer sound. [. . .] Here’s the artist as shaman, a sort of androgynous everywoman who seems to have experienced every peak and valley we have, and is able to give voice to it on our behalf." [4]
[edit] References
- ^ Kozinn, Allan. "Tatiana Troyanos Is Dead at 54; Mezzo Star of Diverse Repertory", The New York Times, August 23, 1993. Accessed June 18, 2009. "Tatiana Troyanos was born in New York on September 12, 1938, and grew up in Forest Hills."
