This channel is the re-establishment of previous channels that have been sadly terminated.
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Arleen Auger--soprano
Dalton Baldwin--piano
1988
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Born: September 13, 1939 - South Gate, California, USA
Died: June 10, 1993 - Leusden, Holland

The esteemed American soprano, Arleen Augér, projected a commanding stage presence and was especially praised for her flexible coloratura soprano voice and subtle interpretations of works by J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Haydn, Monteverdi, Glück, and especially W.A. Mozart.

Arleen Augér was first known through a series of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In Los Angeles, she captured the I. Victor Fuchs Competition (1967) and won an audition with the Vienna Volksoper. Though she had only three songs in her repertoire, Augér so impressed one person at her audition, Josef Krips, director of the Vienna State Opera, that he offered her a contract despite her lack of stage experience and unfamiliarity with the German language. Augér made her debut (1967) there as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. Another powerful admirer at this point was Böhm, with whom she sang, and also recorded a notable Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. She later expanded her repertoire to more than a dozen roles, including Gilda in Rigoletto. Appearances at the Vienna Volksoper included Marie in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment. Her reputation as a coloratura soprano grew with débuts at the New York City Opera (1969) and Salzburg (1970), both as the Queen of Night.

Arleen Augér left the Vienna State Opera in 1974, and with her move to Frankfurt in the same year Augér turned more to lyric roles in opera and to the development of her career as a concert singer. She toured Japan in programmes of J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, and worked extensively with the Pianist Irwin Gage in the lieder repertory. In 1975 she sang as Fire in L’enfant et les sortilèges in her debut at La Scala, and thereafter at many Western European theatres and at the Bolshoi. She was greatly admired in Britain, where she gave many recitals and sang in memorable performances of Alcina (which she also recorded) and L’incoronazione di Poppea at Spitalfields in the City of London Festival.

Arleen Augér continued to expand her recital repertoire and made selective appearances in roles she felt were suitable for her rich tone; she sang Schubert and Robert Schumann lieder and turn-of-the-century French art songs besides commissioning new song cycles by Libby Larsen and Judith Zaimont. During 1971-1975 she appeared as a concert singer at the Salzburg Festspielen (c minor mass of W.A. Mozart), and 1988-1989 (Messiah).

Arleen Augér was renowned as a great concert and oratorio soprano, especially esteemed as a Bach interpreter, taking the lion's share of the soprano parts in Helmuth Rilling's Bach cantata cycle (mid 1970's to mid 1980's).

Arleen Augér, who was more popular in Europe than in the USA, performed at most of the European opera houses before making her New York City Opera debut in 1976. In 1978 made her début at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Marzelline in Fidelio and started to be a member of this famous opera house, but it was not until 1984 that she began to attract a serious USA following. The highlight of her career was her performance at the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duke and Duchess of York, on July 23, in London's Westminster Abbey, when she sang W.A. Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate, and was heard by millions world-wide on television. On the bi-centenary of W.A. Mozart's death (December 5, 1991) she performed in his Requiem in Vienna's St. Stephan's Cathedral. She was also active in teaching in the Salzburg Mozarteum.

Arleen Augér's superb coloratura technique was documented on nearly 200 recordings. Her many recordings show her as a delightful singer of J.S. Bach, Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Schubert and Richard Strauss, to whose Vier letzte Lieder she brought a fresh voice and mature understanding in a performance with Previn. Among her last recordings were a distinguished contribution to Graham Johnson’s Complete Schubert Song Edition and Sonnets from the Portugese, written for her by Libby Larsen.

Arleen Augér's voice was of a gentle character with impressive reserves of power: her singing was unfailingly musical, her professional life refreshingly independent. She continued to perform until 1992, when the brain cancer that later claimed her life forced her retirement. She was a much beloved singer (and she still is) and the sad news of her premature death, after series of operations, were incredulously received and she was deeply mourned."; bach-cantatas.com (edited)

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