Honorees

Phyllis Curtin

Phyllis Curtin is one of the most important American musicians of a great generation, defined by her friend and colleague of half a century, Leonard Bernstein.

I say "is" rather than "was," even though Phyllis Curtin last sang in public more than two decades ago. But long before she stopped singing, she had embarked on a second and equally significant career as an inspiring teacher that has lasted even longer than her singing years and that second career continues to this day.

Educated at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science, Phyllis Curtin began singing as an undergraduate and attended what is now called the Tanglewood Music Center, where she sang in the American premiere of Britten's Peter Grimes and studied with Boris Goldovsky, the most influential opera teacher of the time. By 1950, she had already performed in one of the earliest televised operas, and she became a leading artist of the NBC Opera, appearing in telecasts of Così Fan Tutte and The Love of Three Kings. She began her career as a prima donna of the New York City Opera, making her debut in an opera by Gottfried von Einem. Later she sang at the Metropolitan Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Teatro Colón and well as with other companies in America and in Europe.

Her operatic repertory included the principal roles in operas by Mozart (the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Cosi, both Donna Anna and Donna Elivira in Don Giovanni ), Verdi (Violetta in La Traviata and Alice Ford in Falstaff), Wagner (Senta in The Flying Dutchman and Eva in Die Meistersinger). In Puccini she sang La Bohème, Madama Butterfly and Tosca; she was a popular Rosalinde in Strauss's Die Fledermaus; she was a famous interpreter of Strauss's Salome and also sang in Strauss's Intermezzo. Her French roles included Marguerite (Faust), Manon, "Elle" in La Voix humaine. Her sterling musicianship brought her roles in many contemporary operas. She sang in the American premiere of Walton's Troilus and Cressida, in Giannini's The Taming of the Shrew, Britten's Albert Herring, Milhaud's La mère coupable. She sang the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, and Floyd wrote two subsequent operas with her voice and personality in mind, Wuthering Heights and The Passion of Jonathan Wade.

Ms. Curtin was in equal demand as a recitalist and orchestral soloist. She sang the American premieres of both Britten's War Requiem and Shostakovich's 14th Symphony, a work she sometimes performed in her own English translation. She sang the soprano solos in most of the major oratorios and choral works - Requiems by Mozart, Brahms and Verdi, the Bach Passions, the Poulenc Gloria, the Rossini Stabat Mater.

Carlisle Floyd and Alberto Ginastera were among the composers who wrote voice-and-orchestra works for her. In recital she sang songs in many languages, German Lieder, French melodies, and American songs, again many of them written especially for her by Ned Rorem and other prominent composers; she made a special study of Latin-American songs and often included them on her programs; Aaron Copland accompanied her in his "Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson.". Back in the 50s, she also sang a lot of early music, participating in recordings of works by Bach, Purcell, Handel, Rameau and others.

While she was still at the apex of her singing career, beginning in the 1960s, she began teaching, first at Tanglewood, and later in prestigious full-time positions at Yale University and later at Boston University.

Prominent singers have flocked to work with her over the years, including Dawn Upshaw, Cheryl Studer, Sanford Sylvan, Dominique Labelle, and Marcus Haddock. Ms. Curtin has given master classes all over the country and all over the world, with a particularly important and influential stint in China. Her classes at Tanglewood continue to attract some of the best young singers - and the general public throngs the classroom too; she continues to provide a model for singing, musicianship, and all that an artist ought to be.

- Notes on Phyllis Curtin’s career courtesy of Richard Dyer