Rita Hunter

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Rita Hunter (born August 15, 1933, Wallasey, Merseyside – died April 29, 2001, Sydney) was a British operatic dramatic soprano.

Rita Hunter studied singing in Liverpool with Edwin Francis and later in London with Redvers Llewellyn. She joined the Sadlers Wells Opera Company in 1957, and sang in the chorus with them for two years before touring with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. She then obtained a grant from the Countess of Munster Trust, which made it possible for her to study for a year with Dame Eva Turner. After this she went back to the Company as a principal, where her roles included Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Musetta in La bohème, Odabella in Attila, Fata Morgana in The Love of Three Oranges, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Amelia in A Masked Ball, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana, Elizabeth in Don Carlos and Leonora in Il trovatore. She also sang all three Brünnhildes in the operas of The Ring of the Nibelungen.^[1]

Rita Hunter will be remembered as one of the major Wagnerian sopranos of the later 20th century, especially for her performances as Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle conducted by Reginald Goodall at the English National Opera. In this production she was partnered by Alberto Remedios (who had studied singing at the same time as Hunter in Liverpool with Edwin Francis) as Siegfried, and Norman Bailey as Wotan. The recordings based on this production, with the same artists, are regarded as amongst the finest available, even though they are sung, in accordance with ENO traditions, in English.

In the Glen Byam Shaw Ring production, the quality of Hunter's singing and interpretation enabled audiences to set aside her outsize stature (which conformed to all prejudices about Wagnerian sopranos), and few have matched her conviction as Brünnhilde. She made her 1972 debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Die Walküre with great success (conductor Giulini, Birgit Nilsson as Sieglinde). She performed the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde at Covent Garden, and also sang the part of Senta there at short notice.

She also performed in Wagner and other operas in Munich, Seattle, New Orleans, San Francisco, and with the Welsh National Opera. In a memorable San Francisco season, she played the roles of Norma and Sieglinde in the same week, a feat said to be shared only with Ernestine Schumann-Heink; the voices may also be compared, in that Hunter and Schumann-Heink were dramatic sopranos with bel canto forces. She made her debut at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires as Bellini's Norma, and also sang the role in Boston and New York.^[2]

In 1980 she was awarded the CBE.

In 1981 she moved to Sydney and joined the Australian Opera. In 1986 she published her memoirs, Wait till the sun shines, Nellie. She died in Sydney.

[edit] Notes

^ Mini-biography in EMI Reginald Goodall Die Walküre insert booklet, London 1976.
^ EMI Walküre insert, London 1976.

[edit] Sources

Forbes, Elizabeth, ‘Hunter, Rita Nellie (1933–2001)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, Jan 2005 (accessed 30 June 2007)
'In Memoriam: Rita Hunter', The Musical Times, online edition Summer 2001 (accessed 30 June 2007)
Griffiths, Paul, 'Rita Hunter, 67, Soprano Skilled in Wagner', The New York Times, May 6, 2001 (accessed 23 March 2008)
Die Walküre cond. Reginald Goodall, Booklet of explanatory notes to item SLS 5063, (EMI, London 1976).