Deborah Polaski (born May 26, 1949, inRichland Center, Wisconsin) is an Americanopera andconcert singer (soprano). She has specialized indramatic soprano roles and also singsmezzo-soprano roles occasionally.
Deborah Polaski | |
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| Born | (1949-05-26)May 26, 1949 (age 75) |
| Occupation | Soprano |
| Years active | 1976 - 2003 |
After being educated in the US, Polaski moved to Europe. Her debut was in 1976 as Senta in Wagner'sDer fliegende Holländer at theMusiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen. She subsequently sang on a number of opera stages in Germany (for example, Mannheim, Ulm, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Hannover and Freiburg). Her repertoire comprises primarily dramatic soprano roles, such as the Wagnerian roles of Isolde inTristan und Isolde, Brünnhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Kundry (Parsifal) and Ortrud (Lohengrin), and Richard Strauss'Ariadne auf Naxos andElektra, Berlioz' Didon and Cassandre (Les Troyens), Alban Berg's Marie (Wozzeck) and Janáček's Kostelnička (Jenůfa).
Polaski achieved recognition in 1988 at theBayreuth Festival in the role of Brünnhilde, conducted byDaniel Barenboim. In November 1988, after a single performance ofDer fliegende Holländer with the San Francisco Opera, Polaski, a born-again Christian, canceled all her future engagements and announced she would sing only spiritual music.[1] In 1991 she reprised her performance, and underJames Levine she sang the role for five consecutive years from 1994.
She has appeared as a guest in Amsterdam, at theGran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, at theDeutsche Oper Berlin, theBerlin State Opera and theBerlin Philharmonic, in Bonn, Chicago, Duisburg, Dresden, Florence, Frankfurt, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Cologne, at theRoyal Opera House Covent Garden in London, in Lucerne, Mailand, Mannheim, Montreux and Munich, at the New YorkMetropolitan Opera and theCarnegie Hall, in Oslo, Paris, Rome, Salzburg, Stuttgart, at theSydney Festival, in Tokyo, Vienna, Yokohama and Zürich. She made her debut at theVienna State Opera in 1996 as Brünnhilde; she has also sung Ariadne, Elektra, Marie, Ortrud and Kundry there. She was named anAustrianKammersänger in 2003. Polaski has also made a name for herself as aLied and concert singer.
The title role ofElektra has been a feature of Polaski's repertoire for years, and she has performed it with major orchestras, directors and conductors (for example,Simone Young,Daniel Barenboim,Lorin Maazel, andSemyon Bychkov).
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