Eleanor Steber - Discography

Soprano, born in Wheeling, West Virginia, USA. American-trained, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1940 and stayed there until 1966, becoming famed for her sensitive musicality. Thereafter she continued singing recitals and teaching.

Eleanor Steber, (born Wheeling, West Virginia, 17 July 1914 - died Langhorne, Pennsylvania. 3 October 1990) was an American opera singer.

She sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1940 to 1961, a career chiefly distinguished for the high-lying soprano roles of Richard Strauss, and Mozart heroines as well. She was quite versatile, singing Wagner, Alban Berg, some French opera, the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa by Samuel Barber and a number of Metropolitan Opera premieres, including Strauss’s Arabella, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), and Berg's Wozzeck.

Of erratic temperament, she could indulge in life’s pleasures, and gradually developed a reputation for hard-living; In the late 1940s she made a brilliant success of the Mozart Figaro Countess at the Edinburgh Festival, so much so that HMV Records engaged her to come to their studios after the Festival to record Mozart and other popular arias. She could not sing her standard arias, saying “I don’t feel like singing that.” Susskind, trying to save the recording session, responded, “What do you feel like singing?” Steber thought for a moment and said, “Let’s try ‘Depuis le jour’ (Louise)...” Orchestra parts were found and the disc was cut in one take.

Her career was often marked by incidents such as this, including the summer of 1953 at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival, where her performances of Elsa in Lohengrin were highly acclaimed, her personal deportment in society much less so. No survey of American opera singing is complete without serious attention to Steber.

She died on 3 October 1990 in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, following heart valve surgery.

Discography

Eleanor Steber sings Richard Strauss; Recorded: Munich, June 4, 1953, (1st work); Cleveland, May 5, 1970 (2nd work, encore) Eleanor Steber sings Mozart - Selections Voice of Firestone; Recorded Apr., 1960 (1st-6th works); Recorded May 30-31, 1940 and June 25-26, 1940, Town Hall, New York City; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus ; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus; "1949 Metropolitan Opera Association Production". Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

Peter G. Davis in his book American Opera Singers offers a fine portrait of Steber.