Sylvia Sass
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Sylvia Sass (born on July 12, 1951) is an acclaimed Hungarian soprano. She was born near Budapest; her mother was a coloratura soprano and her father was a high school music-teacher.
At the age of fourteen, Sass made her stage debut in a school production of Adolphe Adam's operetta, La poupée de Nuremberg. She later began studying music at the world-famous Liszt Academy, where she completed a five-year program in two years. She then commenced a seven-year stint with the Hungarian State Opera, where she made her professional debut as Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen, in 1971.
In Budapest, Sass sang roles such as Freia in Das Rheingold, Violetta Valéry in La traviata, and Mimì in La bohème. In 1976, Sass made her London debut when the Hungarian production of Giuseppe Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata was presented at Covent Garden. The success of the engagement encouraged Decca Records to sign her to a contract. In 1976, the soprano also was seen at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, in La traviata.
In 1977, Sass made her Italian debut in Turin as Verdi's Lady Macbeth (in Macbeth), and that same year made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, opposite José Carreras and Ingvar Wixell. In 1978, she was first seen at the Teatro alla Scala, with Plácido Domingo, in Puccini's Manon Lescaut, conducted by Georges Prêtre, a performance that was televised live across Europe.
By this time, Sass was being heralded as "the new Callas." In fact, she did have the opportunity to meet Maria Callas once, in Paris, thanks to an introduction made by Leonard Bernstein.
In 1982, Sass became the first soprano in eighty years to perform Alfano's unabridged ending of Puccini's unfinished opera, Turandot, at the London Barbican. In 1984, she starred in a revival of Franz Schrecker's Der ferne Klang in Venice, and performed in the posthumous premiere of Malipiero's Sogno di un tramonto d'autunno in Mantova, in 1988. But the dramatic coloratura is perhaps best known for her Lady Macbeth, Giselda (I Lombardi), and Floria Tosca (which she sang in New Orleans, in 1987).
Sass has won many awards, the first in 1972 when she won first prize at the Kodály Voice Competition, in Budapest. In 1973, she won the Grand Prix as Violetta in La traviata at the International Opera Competition for Young Singers. In 1974, she won the Silver Medal (there was no First Prize) at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, in Moscow. She was also made an Honored Artist of Hungary, in 1977.
She has also starred as Judit in a film version of Béla Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. Also available on video is a 1983 performance of Il tabarro, from La Scala.
Mme. Sass lives in France, where she both paints and sings. Her first book, The Interior Voice, is to be published in 2007.
Among her numerous recordings are of Bluebeard's Castle (conducted by Sir Georg Solti), Verdi's Stiffelio with Carreras (conducted by Lamberto Gardelli), Don Giovanni (as Donna Elvira) conducted by Sir Georg, Cherubini's Médée (in the Italian version), Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs," Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, and Verdi's Macbeth with Piero Cappuccilli, I Lombardi, Ernani, and Attila. She has also recorded several recital discs of operatic arias (including the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor), as well as Lieder by Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt.
[edit] References
- The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, Simon and Schuster, 1987. ISBN 0-671-61732-X
