Dorothy Dow
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Dow was an American classical soprano
who had an active international career in concerts, operas, and recitals during the 1940s through the 1960s. A dramatic soprano
with an imposing stage presence, she had an opulent voice that she used with great expressiveness. After retiring from the stage in 1968, she embarked on a second career as an academic.
in New York City
, graduating with a bachelor's degree in vocal performance in 1942. She quickly became one of the leading concert sopranos in the United States, singing with orchestras throughout the country and giving a number of highly lauded recitals. She made her first appearance on the opera
stage in Buffalo, New York
as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
in 1946. Her first major critical success was singing the role of Brünnhilde in a concert version of Richard Wagner
's Götterdämmerung
with the Philadelphia Orchestra
under Eugene Ormandy
in 1947.
As an opera singer, Dow's career was more centered in Europe than in the United States. She was engaged at the Zürich Opera
from 1948 to 1950. She was a frequent guest at La Scala
during the 1950s and 1960s, singing there Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss
's Elektra
, Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser
, the title role in La Gioconda
, Judith in Bluebeard's Castle
, Marie in Wozzeck
and Cressida in William Walton
's Troilus and Cressida
among other roles. In 1952 she made her first appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival as Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi
's Macbeth
. She returned to Glyndebourne the following year to sing the title role in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
. In 1954 she sang Irmengard in Spontini’s Agnes von Hohenstaufen
at Teatro della Pergola
. In 1955 she sang the role of Renata in a critically acclaimed production of Sergei Prokofiev
's The Fiery Angel at La Fenice
.
Although Dow made few opera appearances in the United States, the ones she did make were notable. In May 1947, she portrayed the role of Susan B. Anthony in the world premiere of Virgil Thomson
’s The Mother of Us All
at Columbia University
’s Branders Matthews Hall. In 1951 she sang the Woman in the United States premiere of Arnold Schoenberg
’s Erwartung
in Washington, D.C.
In 1968 Dow retired from her singing career. She embarked on a second career as an academic, earning further degrees in history and humanities from the University of Texas at Austin
, Columbia University
and New York University
. She joined the faculty at Rutgers University
where she taught history for many years.
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
who had an active international career in concerts, operas, and recitals during the 1940s through the 1960s. A dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
with an imposing stage presence, she had an opulent voice that she used with great expressiveness. After retiring from the stage in 1968, she embarked on a second career as an academic.
Biography
She studied at the Juilliard SchoolJuilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, graduating with a bachelor's degree in vocal performance in 1942. She quickly became one of the leading concert sopranos in the United States, singing with orchestras throughout the country and giving a number of highly lauded recitals. She made her first appearance on the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
stage in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
in 1946. Her first major critical success was singing the role of Brünnhilde in a concert version of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
under Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
in 1947.
As an opera singer, Dow's career was more centered in Europe than in the United States. She was engaged at the Zürich Opera
Zurich Opera
Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...
from 1948 to 1950. She was a frequent guest at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
during the 1950s and 1960s, singing there Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
, Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, the title role in La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
, Judith in Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of the composer. It is in Hungarian, based on the French fairy tale "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault...
, Marie in Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
and Cressida in William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
's Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida (opera)
Troilus and Cressida is the first of the two operas by William Walton. The libretto was by Christopher Hassall, his own first opera libretto, based on Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde...
among other roles. In 1952 she made her first appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival as Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
. She returned to Glyndebourne the following year to sing the title role in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
. In 1954 she sang Irmengard in Spontini’s Agnes von Hohenstaufen
Agnes von Hohenstaufen
Agnes von Hohenstaufen is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini. The German libretto is by Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach. It was first staged at the Königliches Opernhaus, Berlin on 12 June 1829...
at Teatro della Pergola
Teatro della Pergola
The Teatro della Pergola is a historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name...
. In 1955 she sang the role of Renata in a critically acclaimed production of Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's The Fiery Angel at La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
.
Although Dow made few opera appearances in the United States, the ones she did make were notable. In May 1947, she portrayed the role of Susan B. Anthony in the world premiere of Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
’s The Mother of Us All
The Mother of Us All
The Mother of Us All is an opera by Virgil Thomson to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. It chronicles the life of Susan B. Anthony, one of the major figures in the fight for women's suffrage in the United States...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
’s Branders Matthews Hall. In 1951 she sang the Woman in the United States premiere of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
’s Erwartung
Erwartung
Erwartung , Op.17 is a one-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg to a libretto by Marie Pappenheim. Composed in 1909, it was not premiered until June 6, 1924 in Prague conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky with Marie Gutheil-Schoder as the soprano. The work takes the unusual form of a monologue for solo...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
In 1968 Dow retired from her singing career. She embarked on a second career as an academic, earning further degrees in history and humanities from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. She joined the faculty at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
where she taught history for many years.
External links
- Dorothy Dow Papers at the Newberry Library