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Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

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Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was a renowned American soprano then mezzo-soprano, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.

She was born on March 1, 1954 and died July 3, 2006 of cancer.

She began singing opera in her mid-twenties after beginning her career as a violist with the San Jose Symphony.

Her roles included Sesto (Mozart's La clemenza di Tito), Carmen (Bizet), Médée (Marc-Antoine Charpentier, with William Christie & Les Arts Florissants), Theodora and Irene (Handel's Theodora, "Theodora" at Göttingen with Nicholas McGegan, Irene at Glyndebourne with Christie), Minerva (Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with René Jacobs) and Xerxes (Handel).

She married composer Peter Lieberson in 2000 and changed her name to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Her most recent recordings include one of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantatas, which made the New York Times top 10 classical albums of the year and No. 3 on the Billboard classical chart. She also recorded a CD of George Frideric Handel's Arias. Musical America recognized her as the 2001 Vocalist of the Year.

In 2004, in the subtitle of a New Yorker article, Charles Michener called Lieberson "a mezzo with the most potent voice since Callas".

Those who worked with Hunt Lieberson have spoken of her intense commitment to the detail of bringing a piece to life. French vocal coach Denise Massé said in the same New Yorker magazine interview, “Lorraine is like Callas in her determination to dig as deeply as possible into the character—to find all the grain in the wood.”


See also