Her death was confirmed by Roger Greenberg, a longtime friend.
In a field long dominated by Europeans, Ms. Thebom (pronounced THEE-bom, with the th as in thin) was part of the first, midcentury wave of American opera singers to attain international careers. Associated with the Met from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, she was praised by critics for her warm voice, attentive phrasing and sensitive acting.
Reviewing her “Walküre,” a critic for The New York Times wrote that Ms. Thebom “scored an immediate success.”
At the Met, her other roles included Ortrud in Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” Azucena in Verdi’s “Trovatore” and Amneris in his “Aida,” and the title role in Bizet’s “Carmen.” She also sang at Covent Garden and the Glyndebourne festival in England.
Ms. Thebom last performed at the Met in 1967. She later directed the opera program at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and afterward moved to San Francisco, where she taught privately and helped create a training program for young singers.
In later years, Ms. Thebom appeared often in duo recitals with the soprano Eleanor Steber.
While still a teenager, Ms. Thebom traveled to Sweden with her parents in the 1930s. On the crossing, she was heard singing in the ship’s lounge by Kosti Vehanen, a pianist who often accompanied the contralto Marian Anderson. Mr. Vehanen arranged for Blanche to study in New York, where her primary teacher was Edyth Walker, a former Metropolitan Opera mezzo.
Ms. Thebom’s marriage, to Richard Metz, ended in divorce. No immediate family members survive.
Her recordings include Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte,” in which she sings Dorabella, on the Sony Classical label, and albums of songs by Hugo Wolf and Robert Schumann for RCA Victor. She appeared in films, among them “Irish Eyes Are Smiling” (1944) and “The Great Caruso” (1951).
Ms. Thebom’s career seemed ordained from the moment she stepped onto the New York stage. Making her recital debut at Town Hall in January 1944, she sang a program of Massenet, Handel, Mussorgsky and Brahms.
Reviewing the concert, The Times called her a “richly gifted young artist,” adding, “Her work revealed a wealth of temperament and an inherent musicianship that presage a brilliant career.”»
In 1976, the centenary year of The Ring, he surprised many by abruptly divorcing his wife Ellen after 33 years of apparently contented life together. He and Wieland had both married dancers from Heinz Tietjen's ballet troupe during the second world war. Wolfgang's second wife was a long-standing member of the Bayreuth press office and programme department, Gudrun Armann who had been the wife of Dietrich Mack, joint editor of his grandmother Cosima Wagner's diaries; Gudrun died in 2007.
The resurrection of the festival after the second world war was by no means automatic. Wolfgang, born in Bayreuth, studied the trumpet and French horn before being called up in 1939. He fought on the Polish front, but was invalided out with a wounded hand and treated in the Charité hospital in Berlin, where he was frequently visited by Adolf Hitler. Discharged from the army, Wolfgang served his operatic apprenticeship in Bayreuth and at the Berlin Staatsoper – getting the chance also, as did Wieland, to mount operas by their father Siegfried in regional houses. Richard Wagner's wooden Festspielhaus survived the bombing, but Wahnfried, Wagner's Bayreuth home, now a museum, received a direct hit.
None of this could remotely have been predicted in 1945. Richard Wagner's music still commanded a huge following. But the fact that Hitler had been such a devoted fan of the composer seemed like an indelible black mark – as if the young Dresden socialist composer's notorious antisemitic writings in the mid-19th century meant he would have wanted the 1940s Holocaust. Certainly, after the death of the composer's only son Siegfried in August 1930, following his mother Cosima's death that April, his 33-year-old widow Winifred passed up no opportunity for expressing her personal devotion to the Führer. It was also true that Hitler's love of Wagner – not shared by many of his henchmen – guaranteed the Bayreuth festival unprecedented security.
(ensaio de Tannhäuser, Teatro alla Scala, Milão)
Por fim, os catalães La Fura dels Baus acedem à catedral da lírica europeia, ossia o Teatro alla Scala, por ocasião de uma nova produção de Tannhäuser (Wagner).
Em sintonia com o maestro Zubin Mehta, declaram os catalães:
«"La identificación con Zubin Mehta es total. Con él cambio impresiones, discuto y recojo todas sus sugerencias. El punto de partida escénico de Tannhäuser salió precisamente de una conversación con él. Le pregunté cuál era su Venusberg ideal y me contestó que el de los colores intensos de las mujeres indias en los festivales del Rajhastán. Tres meses después fui con mi familia a Benarés y pude comprobar, rodeado de miles de peregrinos en las orillas del Ganges, no solamente la explosión y sensualidad de los colores a que hacía referencia Zubin, sino también que en India se conservan vivas las creencias y costumbres de la Edad Media. Era un lugar óptimo para ambientar Tannhäuser. Entre los letreros de anuncios luminosos y los antiguos templos, entre la industria de Bollywood y las peregrinaciones multitudinarias, se entremezclan eternamente los mundos del Wartburg y el Venusberg, el conflicto entre espiritualidad y deseo irracional al que Wagner hace referencia continuamente en esta ópera", explica.
Damrau repete, repisa e revisita, clássicos do repertório ligeiro, spinto. Sem nada acrescentar, nem arriscar, limita-se a interpretar pobremente este território.
A técnica apresenta algumas hesitações, estando a voz menos redonda do que noutras ocasiões. Aqui e ali há laivos de estridência...
Apenas para incondicionais de Diana Damrau.
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(3,5/5)
