Ruth Falcon
Ruth Falcon (born November 2, 1942) is an American operatic soprano.
Falcon graduated from Loyola University of the South (BM, in 1964) and Tulane University (MFA, in 1971) and appeared with the New Orleans Opera Association as Frasquita in Carmen, in 1968, opposite Norman Treigle as Escamillo. She made her debut with the New York City Opera as Micaëla in that same opera, in 1974. She went on to appear as the Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, with the City Opera. She studied with Marinka Gurewich in New York City.
She sang the first of her eleven appearances with the Metropolitan Opera in 1989, as the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten. In 1992, the soprano portrayed Chrysothemis in Elektra (conducted by James Levine), and, in 1996, sang the title role in Turandot (with Angela Gheorghiu as Liù). In the Met's 1996-97 season, she made her final operatic appearances, as Gertrud in Hänsel und Gretel (with Jennifer Larmore and Dawn Upshaw, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis), a performance that was broadcast.
Falcon has also appeared at Covent Garden, Paris Opéra, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro la Fenice, Teatro Colón, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Her discography includes a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, conducted by Lord Menuhin (1990). Falcon has become a highly successful pedagogue, and, as of 2011, is on the faculty of The New School's Mannes School of Music. Among her celebrated students are Ainhoa Arteta, Danielle de Niese, Sondra Radvanovsky, and Deborah Voigt.
References
- The New York City Opera: An American Adventure, by Martin L. Sokol (Annals by George Louis Mayer), Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc, 1981. ISBN 0-02-612280-4
- "Loyola at the Met," programme notes by Brian Morgan (1999).
External links
- Ruth Falcon in Richard Strauss' "Frühlingsfeier," on YouTube with Roberto Abbado conducting (1994).