Born in Pennsylvania in 1934, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne moved to southern California and began her singing career as a member of the Roger Wagner Chorale at the age of 14. Following her graduation from high school, Horne majored in voice at the USC School of Music and also studied with famed soprano Lotte Lehmann. Her big break came in 1956, when composer Igor Stravinsky invited her to participate in the Venice Music Festival. She remained in Europe for three seasons and capped that portion of her career with a highly acclaimed performance in Wozzeck, by Alban Berg. A year later she reprised the role of Marie in that opera for San Francisco and employed the identical vehicle for her debut at Covent Garden in London, which took place in October 1964.
Horne’s rise as a powerful operatic presence had the effect of bringing to prominence many operas that had languished for decades. While she appeared regularly in perhaps the most famous mezzo role of all—Carmen—she joined with soprano Joan Sutherland to help revive many bel canto masterpieces that had fallen into disuse throughout the mid-twentieth century in favor of Verdi’s operas and those from the verismo canon, notably works by Puccini. Productions of lesser-known operas by Rossini and others became especially popular thanks to Marilyn Horne singing prominent or title roles, especially where parts had originally been created for castrato singers during each composer’s lifetime but later recast for mezzos. Among the operas in this category are Rossini’s Tancredi and Semiramide, plus such Handel operas as Semele and Rinaldo. In the case of this latter work, Horne participated in its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, amazingly the very first Handel opera that company ever produced.
Horne made her Met debut in 1970 as Adalgisa in Bellini’s opera Norma (with Joan Sutherland as Norma), and she continued to appear with that company regularly. One of her great triumphs in that house was as Fides in Le prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer, the first fully staged American production of that French grand opera in close to a hundred years. She retired from the classical stage in 1999, although she occasionally performs pop-type concerts alongside various singers. Horne also continues to teach master classes in association with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and several other U.S. universities.
Horne performs “Cruda sorte” from Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri: