Elena Nikolaidi
Encyclopedia
Elena Nikolaidi was a noted Greek
-American
opera
singer and teacher. Nikolaidi sang leading mezzo-soprano
roles with major opera companies worldwide and made numerous recordings.
† Her birth year is given as 1906 in some sources.
(which is now İzmir, Turkey
). In 1922, after the invasion of Turkey in Smyrna, she moved with her family to Greece
. She studied voice on scholarship at the Athens Conservatoire
under Thanos Mellos. She made her debut with orchestra in Athens in a performance conducted by Dimitris Mitropoulos
. Her first stage appearance was in the premiere
of The Ghost Bridge by Theophrastos Sakellaridis
.
Nikolaidi married Mellos, her voice instructor, in 1936. However, she would retain "Elena Nikolaidi" as her professional name.
to compete in the Belvedere vocal competition. She placed fourth but earned a second hearing with the great conductor Bruno Walter
, which resulted in her being cast as Princess Eboli, a leading role, in Verdi
's opera Don Carlos
with the Vienna State Opera
on December 16, 1936. Nikolaidi was "an instant, memorable success." She became a star in Vienna; after one performance as Carmen
she received an ovation reported as being between 15 and 30 minutes in length—the longest ever recorded there.
In 1948, Nikolaidi came to the United States
with her husband and their son, Michael. She made her Town Hall
debut recital in New York City
in January 1949. The following morning, Jerome D. Bohm of the New York Herald Tribune
wrote: "In 20 years of music reviewing and in twice that number spent in listening to most of the world's best singers, I have encountered no greater voice or vocalist"; the New York Times
critic wrote of her "rare brilliance." She made her American operatic debut as Amneris in Verdi's Aïda
with the San Francisco Opera
and reprised the role for her Metropolitan Opera
debut in 1951. In the early 1960s she retired from opera but continued concertizing extensively for a number of years.
In 1960 Nikolaidi accepted a position on the voice faculty of Florida State University
in Tallahassee. In 1977 she came to Houston, Texas
, as the primary voice instructor for the newly established Houston Opera Studio, a young-artist training program that was at that time a joint venture of Houston Grand Opera
and the University of Houston
; she also instructed a select few university students who were not in the HOS program. Nikolaidi's students have since sung major roles in many of the leading opera houses of the world. Among her most successful protégés are Bruce Fowler
, Richard Paul Fink, Bruce Ford, Denyce Graves
, Fernando del Valle
, Jason Alexander (tenor), Eric Halfvarson, Diane Kesling, Susanne Mentzer
, Erie Mills, Robynne Redmon, Chris Pedro Trakas, Stella Zambalis
and Linda Zoghby.
Nikolaidi retired from teaching in 1994 and died in Santa Fe, New Mexico
, in 2002.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
singer and teacher. Nikolaidi sang leading mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
roles with major opera companies worldwide and made numerous recordings.
† Her birth year is given as 1906 in some sources.
Early life and musical study
Elena Nikolaidi was born in Smyrna, Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
(which is now İzmir, Turkey
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
). In 1922, after the invasion of Turkey in Smyrna, she moved with her family to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. She studied voice on scholarship at the Athens Conservatoire
Athens Conservatoire
The Athens Conservatoire is the oldest conservatoire in modern Greece. It was founded in 1871 by the Athens Music and Drama Society. Initially, the musical instruments that were taught there were limited to the violin and the flute, representative of the ancient Greek Apollonian and Dionysian...
under Thanos Mellos. She made her debut with orchestra in Athens in a performance conducted by Dimitris Mitropoulos
Dimitris Mitropoulos
Dimitri Mitropoulos , was a Greek conductor, pianist, and composer. Also known as Dimitris Mitropoulos.-Life and career:Mitropoulos was born in Athens, the son of Yannis and Angeliki Mitropoulos. His father owned a leather goods shop at No. 15, St Marks Street. He was musically precocious,...
. Her first stage appearance was in the premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
of The Ghost Bridge by Theophrastos Sakellaridis
Theophrastos Sakellaridis
Theophrastos Sakellaridis , was a Greek composer, conductor, and basic creator of Greek operetta.-Biography:Sakellaridis was born in Athens on 7 September 1883...
.
Nikolaidi married Mellos, her voice instructor, in 1936. However, she would retain "Elena Nikolaidi" as her professional name.
Career
In 1936, Nikolaidi traveled to ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to compete in the Belvedere vocal competition. She placed fourth but earned a second hearing with the great conductor Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
, which resulted in her being cast as Princess Eboli, a leading role, in 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 opera Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
with the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
on December 16, 1936. Nikolaidi was "an instant, memorable success." She became a star in Vienna; after one performance as Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
she received an ovation reported as being between 15 and 30 minutes in length—the longest ever recorded there.
In 1948, Nikolaidi came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with her husband and their son, Michael. She made her Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
debut recital 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...
in January 1949. The following morning, Jerome D. Bohm of the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
wrote: "In 20 years of music reviewing and in twice that number spent in listening to most of the world's best singers, I have encountered no greater voice or vocalist"; the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
critic wrote of her "rare brilliance." She made her American operatic debut as Amneris in Verdi's Aïda
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
with the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
and reprised the role for her Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut in 1951. In the early 1960s she retired from opera but continued concertizing extensively for a number of years.
In 1960 Nikolaidi accepted a position on the voice faculty of Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
in Tallahassee. In 1977 she came to Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, as the primary voice instructor for the newly established Houston Opera Studio, a young-artist training program that was at that time a joint venture of Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
and the University of Houston
Moores School of Music
The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and composition, music history...
; she also instructed a select few university students who were not in the HOS program. Nikolaidi's students have since sung major roles in many of the leading opera houses of the world. Among her most successful protégés are Bruce Fowler
Bruce Fowler (tenor)
Bruce Fowler is an American classical tenor who has had a major international performance career in operas and concerts since the early 1990s. He is particularly known for his appearances in bel canto operas. His first recording, as the tenor soloist for Handel's Messiah with Telarc, was nominated...
, Richard Paul Fink, Bruce Ford, Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...
, Fernando del Valle
Fernando del Valle
Fernando del Valle is an American operatic tenor.-Ancestry:He took the name del Valle in honour of his grandfather, Fernando Meléndez del Valle, who was also a tenor...
, Jason Alexander (tenor), Eric Halfvarson, Diane Kesling, Susanne Mentzer
Susanne Mentzer
Susanne Mentzer is an operatic mezzo-soprano. She is best known for singing trouser roles, such as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo, Octavian in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and the composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as other music of...
, Erie Mills, Robynne Redmon, Chris Pedro Trakas, Stella Zambalis
Stella Zambalis
Stella Zambalis is an American spinto soprano born in Cleveland, Ohio. She has been called one of the best sopranos in the world today.-Education and early career:...
and Linda Zoghby.
Nikolaidi retired from teaching in 1994 and died in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, in 2002.
Recordings
Elena Nikolaidi made numerous recordings. A small selection is listed below:- Legendary Voices (CD, Preiser Records; also issued as Lebendige Vergangenheit by Albany Music Distribution). Nikolaidi with the Columbia Symphony OrchestraColumbia Symphony OrchestraThe Columbia Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra formed by Columbia Records. It provided a vehicle for some of Columbia's better known recording artists to record using only company resources.-Bruno Walter:...
, Vienna Symphony OrchestraVienna Symphony Orchestra-History:In 1900, Ferdinand Löwe founded the orchestra as the Wiener Concertverein . In 1913 it moved into the Konzerthaus, Vienna. In 1919 it merged with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. In 1933 it acquired its current name...
, New York PhilharmonicNew York PhilharmonicThe New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, and pianist Jan Behr performing music of Rossini, VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
, BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
, WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
, Richard StraussRichard StraussRichard 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...
, MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, and BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
. (Recorded 1943, 1949, 1950; released 2003) - Elena Nikolaidi: In Recital (DVD, Video Artists International). Nikolaidi with Guy Bourassa, piano, performing music of GluckChristoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
, WolfHugo WolfHugo Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but utterly unrelated in...
, CanteloubeJoseph CanteloubeMarie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret was a French composer, musicologist, and author best known for his collections of orchestrated folksongs from the Auvergne region.-Biography:...
, and traditional Greek songs. (Recorded 1961; released 2005) - A recording of MahlerGustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Das Lied von der ErdeDas Lied von der ErdeDas Lied von der Erde is a large-scale work for two vocal soloists and orchestra by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler...
, recorded live in 1953 with Bruno WalterBruno WalterBruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
and the New York PhilharmonicNew York PhilharmonicThe New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
and released on an Archipel CD in 1997 and 2003. In some sources this recording is credited to Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Elena NicolaiElena NicolaiStoyanka Savova Nikolova, more famous by her stage name Elena Nicolai , was a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano and opera singer.-Biography:...
, but that is probably an error.
Sources
- "Ciao, Niki" by Charles Ward. Houston ChronicleHouston ChronicleThe Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
, 8 May 1994. - "Elena Nikolaidi (1909–2002)" at beautyinmusic.com
- "Mezzo-Soprano Elena Nikolaidi Is Dead at 96" by Ben Mattison. Houston Chronicle, 19 November 2002. (link)
- Social Security Death Index
- "TENNA KRAFT - ELENA NIKOLAIDI" at classicalcdreview.com
- "Velvet." TIMETime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, 31 January 1949. (link)