Sandra Warfield
Encyclopedia
Sandra Warfield was an American
opera
tic mezzo-soprano
who performed with New York City
's Metropolitan Opera
from the 1950s through the 1970s.
She was born in Kansas City, Missouri
on June 8, 1921, as Flora Jean Bornstein and studied music there at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music (which later became a division of the University of Missouri–Kansas City
). She made her stage debut with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
during the 1940s. In 1950 she portrayed Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus
at the Chautauqua Opera
.
Warfield first appeared on the stage of Metropolitan Opera
in a 1953 performance of The Marriage of Figaro
, the 1786 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, in which she sang the role of a peasant girl. She sang the role of Delilah in Camille Saint-Saëns
's Samson and Delilah
at a concert in Norfolk, Virginia
in 1953 for which she was separately booked with tenor James McCracken
, also a fellow performer at the Met, and the two were married shortly thereafter. McCracken left the Met in 1957, complaining that he was not being given lead roles. They moved to Europe
, where they spent several years. There she performed with the Zurich Opera
. They returned to the United States, and the Metropolitan Opera, in the 1960s.
Her performances at the Met included Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi
's Un ballo in maschera
, Berta in The Barber of Seville
by Gioachino Rossini, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro
, Maddalena in Rigoletto
by Verdi and Erda in Richard Wagner
's Siegfried
, totaling 172 performances. She sang the role of Delilah in Samson and Delilah, with Richard Tucker
performing as Samson. In her farewell performance in January 1971, Warfield performed Delilah with her husband as Samson.
Following her opera retirement, Warfield began cabaret
singing, at such venues as Manhattan's Don't tell mama
. Warfield told The New York Times
how she was greatly satisfied with cabaret, which allowed her to "express not only the sadness, gladness and hate in opera, but the smallest emotions".
Warfield and McCracken co-wrote the 1971 memoir A Star in the Family, edited by Robert Daley
and published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.
A resident of Manhattan
's Upper East Side
, Warfield died at age 88 on June 29, 2009, at Lenox Hill Hospital
, due to complications of a stroke
. She was survived by a daughter, a stepson, and a grandson.
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...
tic 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...
who performed with 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...
's 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...
from the 1950s through the 1970s.
She was born in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
on June 8, 1921, as Flora Jean Bornstein and studied music there at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music (which later became a division of the University of Missouri–Kansas City
University of Missouri–Kansas City
The University of Missouri–Kansas City is a public university located in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It is a branch of the University of Missouri System. Its main campus is in Kansas City's Rockhill neighborhood east of the Country Club Plaza...
). She made her stage debut with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera was an American theatre/opera company in Los Angeles, California. Founded under the motto "Light Opera in the Grand Opera manner" in 1938 by impresario Edwin Lester, the organization presented fifty seasons of theatre before closing due to financial reasons in...
during the 1940s. In 1950 she portrayed Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
at the Chautauqua Opera
Chautauqua Opera
The Chautauqua Opera is the resident summer opera company of the Chautauqua Institution. It is the oldest continuously active summer opera company in the U.S, having been founded in 1929, and it has produced several operas during the Institution's nine-week summer season every year since...
.
Warfield first appeared on the stage of 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...
in a 1953 performance of The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, the 1786 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang 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...
, in which she sang the role of a peasant girl. She sang the role of Delilah in Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
's Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (opera)
Samson and Delilah , Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire...
at a concert in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
in 1953 for which she was separately booked with tenor James McCracken
James McCracken
James McCracken was an American operatic tenor. At the time of his death The New York Times stated that McCracken was "the most successful dramatic tenor yet produced by the United States and a pillar of the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s and 1970s."-Biography:Born in Gary, Indiana,...
, also a fellow performer at the Met, and the two were married shortly thereafter. McCracken left the Met in 1957, complaining that he was not being given lead roles. They moved to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where they spent several years. There she performed with the Zurich 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:...
. They returned to the United States, and the Metropolitan Opera, in the 1960s.
Her performances at the Met included Ulrica 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 Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Berta in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
by Gioachino Rossini, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Maddalena in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
by Verdi and Erda in 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 Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
, totaling 172 performances. She sang the role of Delilah in Samson and Delilah, with Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor.-Early life:Tucker was born Rivn Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first...
performing as Samson. In her farewell performance in January 1971, Warfield performed Delilah with her husband as Samson.
Following her opera retirement, Warfield began cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
singing, at such venues as Manhattan's Don't tell mama
Don't tell mama
Don't Tell Mama is a piano bar and cabaret located at 343 West 46th Street in New York City, USA, known in part for being featured on the TV show Friends....
. Warfield told 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...
how she was greatly satisfied with cabaret, which allowed her to "express not only the sadness, gladness and hate in opera, but the smallest emotions".
Personal
Her first marriage to Frank Warfel, which ended in a divorce, became the source of the last name she adopted as a performer. Her second marriage, to James McCracken, ended with his death in April 1988, described by The New York Times as "the most successful dramatic tenor yet produced by the United States".Warfield and McCracken co-wrote the 1971 memoir A Star in the Family, edited by Robert Daley
Robert Daley
Robert Daley , is an American novelist. He is the author of 28 books, five of which have been adapted for film.Daley graduated from Fordham University in 1951 and served in the Air Force during the Korean War...
and published by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.
A resident of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
, Warfield died at age 88 on June 29, 2009, at Lenox Hill Hospital
Lenox Hill Hospital
Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City, is a 652-bed, acute care hospital and a major teaching affiliate of New York University Medical Center. Founded in 1857 as the German Dispensary, today's 10-building Lenox Hill Hospital complex has occupied its present site since...
, due to complications of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. She was survived by a daughter, a stepson, and a grandson.
External links
- http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/gisrch2k.r?Term=Warfield,%20Sandra%20%5BMezzo%20Soprano%5D&limit=5000&vsrchtype=no&xBranch=ALL&xmtype=&Start=&End=&theterm=Wa%72fi%65ld,%20Sand%72a%20%5BM%65zzo%20Sop%72ano%5D&srt=&x=0&xHome=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/bibpro.htm&xHomePath=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/Warfield, Sandra (Mezzo Soprano)] – Metropolitan Opera performance record on the MetOpera Database