Blanche Thebom

thumb|Thebom in 1954. '''Blanche Thebom''' (September 19, 1915{{spaced ndash}}March 23, 2010<ref name="SFCV">{{cite news|url=http://www.sfcv.org/article/in-memoriam-blanche-thebombr1915-2010|title=In Memoriam: Blanche Thebom|last=Serinus |first=Jason Victor|date=March 24, 2010|work=San Francisco Classical Voice|accessdate=2010-03-25}}</ref>) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director. She was part of the first wave of American opera singers that had highly successful international careers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/03/29/blanche_thebom_was_met_opera_star/|title=Blanche Thebom; was Met Opera star|work=The Boston Globe|date=March 29, 2010}}</ref> In her own country she had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City which lasted 22 years. ''Opera News'' stated, "An ambitious beauty with a velvety, even-grained dramatic mezzo, Thebom was a natural for opera: she commanded the stage with the elegantly disciplined hauteur of an old-school diva, relishing the opportunity to play ''femmes du monde'' such as Marina in ''Boris Godunov'', Herodias and Dalila."<ref name="ON">{{cite journal|journal=Opera News|date=June 2010|volume=74|number=12|url=http://209.123.189.218/operanews/templates/content.aspx?id=15178|title=Obituaries:Met mezzo Blanche Thebom|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810170412/http://209.123.189.218/operanews/templates/content.aspx?id=15178|archivedate=2011-08-10}}</ref>

While Thebom sang a wide repertoire which encompassed everything from Handel and Mozart to Verdi and Debussy, she was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner. Two Wagner roles with which she was particularly associated were Fricka in ''Die Walküre'' and Brangaene in ''Tristan und Isolde''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/04/AR2010040402794.html|title=Blanche Thebom: Opera Singer|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=April 5, 2010}}</ref> She notably sang the latter role in the famous 1952 EMI recording made in London with Kirsten Flagstad, Ludwig Suthaus, and conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. She is Didon in ''Les Troyens'' (world premiere 1957, conducted by Rafael Kubelik). In addition to several other recordings, she also appeared in two feature films during her career: ''Irish Eyes Are Smiling'' (1944) and ''The Great Caruso'' (1951).<ref name="Times"/>

After retiring from the stage in 1967, Thebom worked as an opera director in Atlanta for 6 years. She then taught singing both privately and on the music faculties of the University of Arkansas and San Francisco State University. She also co-founded the Opera Arts Training Program of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and served on the board of the Metropolitan Opera for nearly 40 years.<ref name="ON"/>

==Early life and education== Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, in 1915, Thebom was the daughter of Swedish parents who had immigrated to the United States.<ref name="Times">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7085884.ece|title=Blanche Thebom: mezzo-soprano|date=April 3, 2010|work=The Times}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Her year of birth is sometimes incorrectly given as 1918.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/nyregion/28thebom.html|title=Blanche Thebom, Star at the Met and Beyond, Dies at 94|work=The New York Times|date=March 28, 2010|page=A26|author=Margalit Fox|author-link=Margalit Fox}}</ref> She was raised in Canton, Ohio, where she studied ballet and was active as a singer in her church's choir. She continued to take ballet lessons into her 40s.<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/7720755/Blanche-Thebom.html|title=Music Obituaries: Blanche Thebom|date=13 May 2010|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref> She completed business college and then took a job as a secretary at an industrial firm in Canton.<ref name="SFCV"/>

In 1938, while working as a secretary, Thebom traveled with her parents to Sweden. During the voyage from America to Europe, she was overheard singing in the ship's lounge by pianist Kosti Vehanen. Vehanen was Marian Anderson's regular accompanist and vocal coach, and he was highly impressed with Thebom's talent. Accordingly, he arranged for Thebom to become a pupil of Giuseppe Boghetti in New York, who was Anderson's voice teacher, and also eventually got her signed with talent manager Sol Hurok who also managed Anderson's career.<ref name="debut">{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QKQhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3689,1603269&dq=blanche-thebom&hl=en|title=Former Secretary Scores Hit During Vocal Debut In Phila.|work=Reading Eagle|date=November 8, 1941}}</ref> After Boghetti's death in July 1941, she studied with retired Metropolitan Opera mezzo-sopranos Edyth Walker and Margarete Matzenauer in New York City.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nllFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3618,3862297&dq=blanche-thebom&hl=en|title=Moss Thebom Scores With Local Audience|author=Anne McKeever|work=The Telegraph-Herald|date=October 19, 1941}}</ref><ref name="Forbes"/>

==Early career and performing at the Metropolitan Opera== Thebom's first prominent engagement as a performer came in November, 1941 when she made her first appearance as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and University of Pennsylvania Glee Club under conductor Eugene Ormandy at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.<ref name="debut"/> She then spent the next three years performing in concerts and recitals throughout the United States. She also sang at the Academy of Music for her professional opera debut on November 28, 1944; portraying the role of Brangäne in Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' for an out of town engagement of New York's Metropolitan Opera. She repeated that role for her first appearance on the New York stage at the Metropolitan Opera House on December 14, 1944.<ref name="Forbes">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/blanche-thebom-mezzosoprano-lauded-for-her-interpretations-of-wagner-1958575.html|title=Blanche Thebom: Mezzo-soprano lauded for her interpretations of Wagner|author=Elizabeth Forbes|work=The Independent|date=30 April 2010|author-link=Elizabeth Forbes (musicologist)}}</ref>

Thebom sang with the Metropolitan Opera for the next 22 seasons, giving a total of 357 performances with the company during her career. Her most frequent role at the Met was Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Aida''; a part she played in 80 performances opposite such Aidas as Gloria Davy, Florence Kirk, Zinka Milanov, Herva Nelli, Delia Rigal, Antonietta Stella, Renata Tebaldi, and Ljuba Welitsch among others.<ref name="ON"/><ref name="Met">{{citation|url=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm|title=Metropolitan Opera Archives|work=archives.metoperafamily.org/archives|access-date=2011-05-06|archive-date=2018-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008160207/http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/frame.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> She also excelled in Wagner's operas at the Met, portraying the roles of Erda in ''Das Rheingold'', Magdalene in ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'', Ortrud in ''Lohengrin'', Venus in ''Tannhäuser'', Waltraute in ''Götterdämmerung'', and Fricka in both ''Die Walküre'' and ''Das Rheingold''.<ref name="ON"/>

In 1951, Thebom appeared as Dorabella in the premiere of Alfred Lunt's popular English-language production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's ''Così fan tutte'' at the Met. She also appeared in two United States premieres at the Met; singing the roles of Baba the Turk in Igor Stravinsky's ''The Rake's Progress'' (1953) and Adelaide in Richard Strauss' ''Arabella'' (1955).<ref name="ON"/> Other roles she performed at the Met included Adalgisa in ''Norma'', Azucena in ''Il trovatore'', Dalila in ''Samson and Delilah'', Eboli in ''Don Carlos'', Geneviève in ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', Giulietta in ''The Tales of Hoffmann'', Herodias in ''Salome'', Klytämnestra in ''Elektra'', Laura Adorno in ''La Gioconda'', Marfa in ''Khovanshchina'', Marina in ''Boris Godunov'' (1956),<ref>Opera News, Volume XX: Number 18: March 5, 1956</ref> the Old Baroness in ''Vanessa'', Orlofsky in ''Die Fledermaus'', and the title roles in ''Carmen'' and ''Mignon''. Her final performance at the Met was as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's ''The Queen of Spades'' on March 6, 1967; this was the only production that she appeared in at the Met after the company's 1966 move to the new opera house at Lincoln Center.<ref name="Met"/>

==Other performance work== Outside of the Metropolitan Opera, Thebom had actively performed as a guest artist with opera companies throughout the United States and abroad. In 1946, she made her stage debut in Chicago as Brangäne with the Chicago Opera Company. She made her debut with the San Francisco Opera (SFO) the following year singing Amneris to the Aida of Stella Roman. She was heard frequently in San Francisco through 1963; notably portraying the role of Mother Marie in the United States premiere of Francis Poulenc's ''Dialogues of the Carmelites'' at the SFO in 1957. Other roles she performed in San Francisco were Brangäne, Cherubino in ''The Marriage of Figaro'', Carmen, Dalila, Fricka, Giulietta, Laura Adorno, Marina, Octavian in ''Der Rosenkavalier'', and Orfeo in ''Orfeo ed Euridice''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.sfopera.com/qry3WebCastlist.asp?psearchall=on&psearch=Thebom&psearchtype=|title=Blanche Thebom|work=San Francisco Opera Archives}}</ref> She also sang Dalila to the Samson of Giovanni Martinelli at the Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company in 1950.<ref>New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: ''Folder: Philadelphia Civic Grand Opera Company''</ref>

Thebom made her European debut in 1950 as Dalila at the Royal Swedish Opera (RSO). She returned to the RSO several times, singing such roles as Amneris, Eboli and — in what ''The Times'' described as "a not especially successful attempt at a soprano role" — as Elisabeth in ''Tannhäuser''.<ref name="Times"/> She made her first appearance in the UK with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Summer of 1950 as Dorabella.<ref name="Forbes"/> In 1957 she came to London to sing Dido in the much lauded 1957 production of Hector Berlioz's ''Les Troyens'' at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was the first time that this opera was staged by a professional company. In this production she made effective use of her spectacularly long hair, allowing it to fall down her back as she ascended the funeral pyre at the end.<ref name=CantonRep>{{cite web|url=http://www.cantonrep.com/stark/canton/x1176894073/Famed-Canton-opera-singer-Blanche-Thebom-dies|title=Famed Canton opera singer Blanche Thebom dies|date=March 26, 2010|publisher=CantonRep.com|accessdate=2010-03-26|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330075231/http://www.cantonrep.com/stark/canton/x1176894073/Famed-Canton-opera-singer-Blanche-Thebom-dies|archivedate=March 30, 2010}}</ref>

In 1957, at the pinnacle of the Cold War, Thebom became the first American to perform at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where she portrayed ''Carmen'' for 3 weeks.<ref name="Telegraph"/> She soon after gave a concert tour of Russia. She also gave performances in Greece, including a concert in front of the Parthenon with thousands in attendance.<ref name="Telegraph"/> In 1960, she appeared at the Dallas Opera as Ruggiero in a celebrated production of George Frideric Handel's ''Alcina'', with Joan Sutherland in the title role.<ref name="ON"/> In 1964, Thebom portrayed the Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg's ''Lulu'' for the Opera Group of Boston. She also portrayed Prince Orlofsky (1965 and 1967) and Brangäne (1967) with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company.<ref>Free Library of Philadelphia: Bound: Philadelphia Grand Opera Company 1955-1974</ref>

==Post opera career== After her retirement from the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, Thebom sang periodically in concerts and recitals. She appeared in several recitals with soprano Eleanor Steber. In June, 1967, Thebom was appointed director of the opera division at the Atlanta Municipal Theatre.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=izY_AAAAIBAJ&pg=6141,2175210&dq=blanche-thebom+atlanta&hl=en|title=Opera Star Gets Position|work=The Windsor Star|date=June 21, 1967}}</ref> When that organization went bankrupt in 1969, she founded her own opera company: Atlanta's Southern Regional Opera.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g-dZAAAAIBAJ&pg=2037,5959338&dq=blanche-thebom+atlanta&hl=en|title=Opera Not Dead In Atlanta, Blanche Thebom Declares|work=Waycross Journal-Herald|date=March 6, 1969}}</ref> She remained General Director of that company until it ceased operations in 1973.<ref name="ON"/>

While working in Atlanta, Thebom began actively working as a voice teacher. She also appeared in summer theatre revivals of Broadway musicals in Atlanta portraying roles like the Mother Abbess in ''The Sound of Music''. In 1973, she moved to Little Rock to join the music faculty at the University of Arkansas. She taught singing and was director of the opera program there until the Spring of 1980, when she was appointed director of the opera program at San Francisco State University (SFSU).<ref name="ON"/>

While teaching at SFSU and later privately, Thebom served as chair of the Pacific Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for fifteen years. In the late 1980s she co-founded the Opera Arts Training Program of the San Francisco Girls Chorus with Elizabeth Appling. She continued to lead that organization up into the early 2000s. Several of the girls who attended the program later became professional opera singers.<ref name="Times"/> Thebom also served on the board of the Metropolitan Opera from 1970–2008,<ref name="ON"/> and was a judge for the national level of the Miss America pageant.<ref name="Telegraph"/>

Blanche Thebom died of heart failure at her home in San Francisco on March 23, 2010 at the age of 94.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-blanche-thebom31-2010mar31-story.html|title=Blanche Thebom dies at 94; operatic mezzo-soprano|date=March 30, 2010|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

==Recordings== *'''''Blanche Thebom, mezzo-soprano:''''' Arias from ''Don Carlos'', ''La Gioconda'', ''Tristan und Isolde'', ''Das Rheingold'', ''Die Walküre'', ''Götterdämmerung'' and ''Samson et Dalila''; songs of Hugo Wolf, and Gustav Mahler's ''Songs of a Wayfarer''. Preiser 89559 CD<ref>[http://www.classicalcdreview.com/thebom.htm Classical CD review of Preiser 89559, accessed 2010-03-21] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207081548/http://www.classicalcdreview.com/thebom.htm |date=December 7, 2010 }}</ref> *'''''Samson et Dalila''''' (Camille Saint-Saëns), 1956, Set Svanholm, Blanche Thebom, Sigurd Björling, Herbert Sandberg, Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Caprice; CAT: CAP 22054 *'''''Tristan und Isolde''''' (Richard Wagner), 1952, Kirsten Flagstad, Ludwig Suthaus, Blache Thebom, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Operahouse, Covent Garden. EMI Classics.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0857300}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110609071024/http://www.cantonrep.com/entertainment/arts/x1945271661/The-Monday-After-Opera-singer-Blanche-Thebom-was-the-bomb 'The Monday After: Opera singer Blanche Thebom was the bomb' by Gary Brown (Nov 29, 2009), accessed 21 January 2010] *[http://www.bruceduffie.com/thebom.html Interview with Blanche Thebom] by Bruce Duffie October 19, 1982 *[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9z09s54b/ Blanche Thebom Collection (ARS.0059), Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thebom, Blanche}} Category:1915 births Category:2010 deaths Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:American operatic mezzo-sopranos Category:Musicians from Canton, Ohio Category:People from Monessen, Pennsylvania Category:San Francisco State University faculty Category:University of Arkansas faculty Category:Classical musicians from Ohio Category:Singers from Pennsylvania Category:Classical musicians from Pennsylvania Category:Singers from Ohio