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Klara Barlow, 79, American Dramatic Soprano Who Sang Meteoric Met Isolde, Has Died
23rd April, 2008
Born Alma Claire Williams, the soprano had little professional success until she moved to Europe in the 1960s, when she became known as an attractive, reliable performer of the dramatic soprano repertoire in Switzerland and Germany, and then in other European theaters. Barlow made her Met debut in 1971 in Fidelio but caused little stir there until 1974, when a revival of Tristan und Isolde attracted a great deal of attention to the beautiful soprano, who had yet to try her Wagnerian credentials in New York, despite a tally of thirty Isoldes in Europe. Her scheduled Tristan, Jon Vickers, controversially opted to sing only a single broadcast performance with her, ceding the much-anticipated opening night of the run to Jess Thomas. Barlow's sensitive, womanly Irish princess was called "the performance of her life" on the front page of The New York Times and covered in a Time feature story, but it did not make her a star at the Met, which never engaged her for another Wagner role. Barlow last sang with the company as one of the denizens of Mahagonny in the company's first-season run of Kurt Weill's opera, in 1979. Other companies on Barlow's resumé included Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, La Scala, Dresden, Stuttgart, Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Portland Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Barlow also taught voice at Indiana University Blooomington (1987–2002).
Release link:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/news/pressrelease.aspx?id=1496
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