Rita Gorr (18 February 1926 – 22 January 2012)[1]was aBelgian operaticmezzo-soprano. She possessed a large, rich-toned voice and was an intense singing-actress, especially in dramatic roles such as Ortrud (Lohengrin) and Amneris (Aida), two of her greatest roles.[2]
Gorr was bornMarguerite Geirnaert into a working-class family in the industrial town ofZelzate, nearGhent, Belgium.[3] After leaving school she worked as a nurse, where the family who employed her discovered her singing and paid for her first lessons.[3]After vocal studies in Ghent withVina Bovy, and inBrussels with Jeanne Pacquot d'Assy andGermaine Hoerner, she won first prize at the vocal competition ofVerviers in 1946, and made her professional debut atAntwerp as Fricka inDie Walküre the same year. She became a member of the Opera ofStrasbourg from 1949 to 1952. She won another first prize at the vocal competition ofLausanne in 1952. That year she made her Paris debuts at theOpéra-Comique as Charlotte inWerther on 6 March 1952, and at theParis Opéra on 31 October as Magdalena inDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg; further roles in Paris included Dalila inSamson and Delilah, Venus inTannhäuser, Mère Marie in the French premiere ofDialogues of the Carmelites (later in her career she sang Madame de Croissy),Carmen, Geneviève inPelléas et Mélisande, Amneris inAida, Eboli inDon Carlos and Marguerite inLa damnation de Faust.
Her career then became international in scope, with debuts atBayreuth in 1958, theRoyal Opera House in 1959,La Scala in 1960, theMetropolitan Opera on 17 October 1962 as Amneris. In four seasons at the Met, she sang Santuzza inCavalleria rusticana, Eboli inDon Carlos, Azucena inIl trovatore, and Dalila. She was a versatile artist, singing with equal success the French, Italian and German repertories. She enjoyed a very long career singing well into her 60s and 70s and her last role was as the Countess inTchaikovsky'sThe Queen of Spades which she performed in the summer of 2007 inGhent andAntwerp.
Gorr believed that 'trouser-roles' did not suit her; she did however, sing Lel inThe Snow Maiden in 1955 in concert andOctavian in 1958.[4]
Although mainly active on stage, Gorr also sang occasionally in the concert hall, in works by Schumann, Duparc and Wagner; she recorded Mahler lieder.[4]
Gorr can be heard in two of her greatest roles on recordings: Ortrud inLohengrin in the 1965 studio performance underErich Leinsdorf, oppositeSándor Kónya andLucine Amara, as well as in the 1959 live performance from theBayreuth Festival conducted byLovro von Matačić; and Amneris inAida in the 1961 studio performance underGeorg Solti, oppositeLeontyne Price andJon Vickers. Other recorded roles includeDalila inSamson and Delilah underGeorges Prêtre in 1962 (studio),Margared inLe Roi d'Ys underAndré Cluytens in 1957 (studio), Mère Marie inDialogues des Carmélites underPierre Dervaux in 1958 (studio),Fricka inDie Walküre under Erich Leinsdorf in 1961 (studio), as well as both roles ofFricka inDas Rheingold andDie Walküre, Grimgerde inDie Walküre and theThird Norn inGötterdämmerung — all four in live performances at the Bayreuth Festival in 1958 underHans Knappertsbusch. She also recorded excerpts fromOrphée et Eurydice (Orphée),Hérodiade (title role) andLa damnation de Faust, as well as recitals on Pathé.Gorr can be heard in one of her rarest roles, in an excerpt from Cherubini's Medea (recorded in French) with the Orchestre du Theatre National de l'Opera under Georges Prêtre on ASTX 130502 Pathe-Marconi, and in excerpts from two of her other Wagner roles — Isolde and Elisabeth — under André Cluytens on Testament SBT1256.[5]
In her later life, Gorr made her home inDénia, Spain.[3] Oresko describes her as giving "the impression of regal grandeur and control by the solidness of her vocal production and a unique gift for instinctive authority".[4]
