{{short description|American operatic soprano (born 1943)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Norma Sharp | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|07|20}} | birth_place = Shawnee, Oklahoma, US | death_date = | death_place = | education = {{plainlist| * University of Kansas * {{nowrap|{{lang|de|Musikhochschule Hamburg}}}} * {{lang|de|Musikhochschule Köln}} }} | occupation = {{plainlist| * Operatic soprano * Academic voice teacher }} | years_active = | organization = {{plainlist| * {{lang|de|Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe}} * Bayreuth Festival * {{nowrap|{{lang|de|Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler"}}}} }} }}
'''Norma Sharp''' (born July 20, 1943)<ref name="Merker" /> is an American operatic soprano. She is known for singing Mozart and Richard Strauss, but also sang Wagner roles at the Bayreuth Festival. She worked mostly in Germany, made an international career, and has been a professor of voice at the {{lang|de|Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler"}} from 1992.
== Career ==
Sharp was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and studied voice and musicology at the University of Kansas.<ref name="Cummings2000" /> She continued her studies on a scholarship at the {{lang|de|Musikhochschule Hamburg}} with Helmut Melchert and at the {{lang|de|Musikhochschule Köln}} with Peter Witsch.<ref name="Theater" /> She was a member of the {{lang|de|Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe}}.<ref name="Bayreuth" /> Her voice, termed lyric and "{{lang|de|jugendlich-dramatisch}}" (spinto), led to preferred interpretation of roles in operas by Mozart and Richard Strauss.<ref name="Berlin" />
She appeared in London at Covent Garden, in Glasgow at the Scottish Opera and in 1978 at the Glyndebourne Festival as Donna Anna in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni''. She sang the part of the countess in Mozart's ''{{lang|it|Le nozze di Figaro}}'' at her debut at La Scala in Milan.<ref name="Bayreuth" />
Sharp performed at the Bayreuth Festival from 1977 to 1981,<ref name="Cummings2000" /> singing parts in the {{lang|de|Jahrhundertring}}, the centenary performance of Wagner's ''{{lang|de|Der Ring des Nibelungen}}'' staged by Patrice Chéreau in 1976. She appeared as the Rhine Maiden Woglinde in ''{{lang|de|Das Rheingold}}'' and ''{{lang|de|Götterdämmerung}}'', and {{lang|de|Waldvogel}} (Voice of a forest bird) in ''Siegfried'', also in the version filmed in 1980.<ref name="Bayreuth" /> In ''Parsifal'', she sang one of the flower maidens.<ref name="Bayreuth" />
In recital, she is focused on German romantic and contemporary Lieder, accompanied by pianists such as Irwin Gage, Wilhelm von Grunelius and Wolfram Rieger.<ref name="Berlin" />
From 1992 she has been a professor of voice at the {{lang|de|Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler"}} in Berlin.<ref name="Berlin" />
== Selected recordings ==
Sharp appeared in her Bayreuth performances on film – the ''Ring'' cycle filmed in 1980 and ''Parsifal'' in 1982. She sang Waldvogel and Gutrune in the 1983 ''Ring'' digital recording with Marek Janowski conducting the {{lang|de|Staatskapelle Dresden}}, with Theo Adam as Wotan, Jessye Norman as Sieglinde, Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegmund, and René Kollo as Siegfried.<ref name="Levine" />
== References ==
{{reflist | 25em | refs =
<ref name="Cummings2000">{{cite book | last = Cummings | first = David M. | title = International Who's Who in Music and Musician's Directory | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ez1JfIVM4ykC&pg=PA588 | year = 2000 | publisher = Psychology Press | isbn = 978-0-948875-53-3 | pages = 588–589 | chapter = Sharp, Norma }}</ref>
<ref name="Merker">{{cite web |url = http://www.der-neue-merker.eu/geburtstage-im-juli-2013 |title = 20.7. Norma Sharp wird 70 |publisher = Der neue Merker |language = German |accessdate = March 26, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140705093657/http://www.der-neue-merker.eu/geburtstage-im-juli-2013 |archive-date = July 5, 2014 |url-status = dead }}</ref>
<ref name="Theater">{{cite web | url = http://theaterderzeit.de/person/8544/ | title = Norma Sharp | publisher = Theater der Zeit | language = German | accessdate = March 26, 2014 }}</ref>
<ref name="Bayreuth">{{cite web |url = http://auffuehrungsdatenbank.bayreuther-festspiele.de/fsdb/personen/329/index.htm |title = Norma Sharp |publisher = Bayreuth Festival |language = German |accessdate = March 8, 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170814223737/http://auffuehrungsdatenbank.bayreuther-festspiele.de/fsdb/personen/329/index.htm |archive-date = August 14, 2017 |url-status = dead }}</ref>
<ref name="Berlin">{{cite web | url = http://hfmberlin.de/en/Norma_Sharp.html?SID=uhkxpjoqfrayhr | title = Prof. Norma Sharp | publisher = Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" | accessdate = March 26, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140309011254/http://hfmberlin.de/en/Norma_Sharp.html?SID=uhkxpjoqfrayhr | archive-date = March 9, 2014 | url-status = dead }}</ref>
<ref name="Levine">{{cite web | last = Levine | first = Robert | url = http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-10781/#sthash.HvJgDi2H.dpuf | title = Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen/Janowski | publisher = classicstoday | accessdate = March 26, 2014 }}</ref>
}}
== External links == * {{AllMusic|id=mn0002182044}} * [http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/mayvoicesinberlin/NormaSharp_bio.pdf Norma Sharp] black-international-cinema.com
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Norma}} Category:Living people Category:American operatic sopranos Category:1943 births Category:People from Shawnee, Oklahoma Category:University of Kansas alumni Category:Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin Category:Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg alumni Category:Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln alumni Category:American expatriates in Germany Category:American women academics Category:21st-century American women