Jeannette Zarou

Jeannette Zarou
Native name تتمة جانيت
Born 1942 (age 7374)
Ramallah, West Bank
Education University of Toronto
Occupation
  • Classical soprano
  • Academic teacher
Organization
Home town Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Jeannette Zarou (Arabic pronunciation: [تتمة جانيت]; born 1942, Ramallah) is a Palestinian-born Canadian soprano. She was a lyric soprano with the Canadian Opera Company and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and has worked as an academic voice teacher at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.

Career

Zarou moved to Corner Brook, Newfoundland in 1947,[1] where she studied at the University of Toronto in 1961, as a student of Irene Jessner.[2] In 1964, she debuted at the Canadian Opera Company (COC) as a priestess in Verdi's Aida.[3] In 1964, she sang the title role in the premiere of Healey Willan's opera Deirdre by the University's Opera Division.[4] A review noted:

Jeannette Zarou, truly sympathetic in the title role, possessed a mellow lyric soprano voice that led to a distinguished career in Germany over the next thirty years.[4]

With the Canadian Opera Company, she performed the parts of Liù in Puccini's Turandot (1965), Micaela in Bizet's Carmen (1966), Marguerite in Gounod's Faust (1970), Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio (1973) and Mimi in Puccini's La bohème (1976).[1][4]

From 1967 to 1974 she was a lyric soprano at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and performed with singers Bernd Weikl, Rene Kollo, Peter Hofmann, Manfred Jung and Paul Frey. She also made guest appearances at opera houses in Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg Opera, Cologne Opera, Vienna and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden.[2] She performed the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss at the Stratford Festival in 1975, conducted by Raffi Armenian and directed by Jan Rubes.[5]

Zarou was also active as a concert singer.[2] At the Expo 67, she sang the soprano part in Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.[1] She sang in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Bach-Chor Bonn in 1977.[6]

Zarou has been a professor of voice at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.[1] One of her notable students was Maria Radner, a contralto who appeared in international operas including the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 in Götterdämmerung, which was part of the opera's documentary Wagner's Dream.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 So, Joseph (1999). "Grand Tradition: Jeannette Zarou". Opera Canada (Vol. 40, No. 4).
  2. 1 2 3 Kutsch, Karl-Josef; Riemens, Leo (September 1, 2013). Großes Sängerlexikon, Band 4 (in German). Walter de Gruyter. p. 5144. ISBN 9783598440885.
  3. Schabas, Ezra (September 1, 2005). There's Music in These Walls: A History of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Dundurn. p. 179. ISBN 9781550025408.
  4. 1 2 3 Schabas, Ezra (September 1, 2013). Dundurn Performing Arts Library Bundle — Musicians:. Dundurn. p. 179. ISBN 9781459724013.
  5. Schabas, Ezra (2007). Jan Rubes: A Man of Many Talents. Dundurn. ISBN 9781550026856. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  6. "Konzertliste der Bonner Bach-Gemeinschaft / ab 2012" (PDF). Bach-Chor Bonn. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  7. "Der Ring des Nibelungen and, "Wagner's dream" : the making of the Ring" (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, August 25, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.