Teresa Żylis-Gara
Having studied music for nine years at the Łódź Music School, where her singing teacher was Olga Olgina, Żylis-Gara won first prize in the Polish Young Singers Contest, held in Warsaw in 1954. This resulted in engagements to sing on Polish radio and with the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra. She made her operatic stage debut in 1956 in the title role of Moniuszko’s opera Halka with the Kraków Opera, where in 1957 she sang the title part in Madama Butterfly. After taking second prize in the 1958 Toulouse International Singing Competition and third prize in the 1960 Munich International Music Competition, organized by the West German radio stations of the time, she made Germany the focus of her career.
Here, while continuing vocal studies with Dietger Jacob, Żylis-Gara was with the Oberhausen Opera from 1960 to 1962, then the Dortmund Opera from 1962 to 1965. This was followed by a five year period, 1965–1970, with the Deutsche Opera am Rhein, serving Düsseldorf and Duisberg, to which she subsequently returned as a frequent guest: a notable Düsseldorf assumption was the title role in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in 1967. She also sang as a guest throughout the 1960s and 1970s with the opera companies of Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
Żylis-Gara’s substantial international career took off in 1965 when she sang Octavian / Der Rosenkavalier with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, to which she returned in 1967 to sing Donna Elvira / Don Giovanni. Having made a highly successful debut with the Paris Opera in 1966, resulting in a three year contract, she became extremely popular in France. After singing Donna Elvira during 1968 at the Salzburg Festival and the San Francisco Opera, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in this role at the end of the year, making a deep impression upon the company’s manager, Rudolf Bing.
Bing offered Żylis-Gara a permanent contract with the Met, which became the centre of her operatic career until 1984. Her roles with the company included Pamina / Die Zauberflöte (1980), the Countess / Le nozze di Figaro (1970), Violetta / La traviata (1970), Fiordiligi / Così fan tutte (1971), Marguerite / Faust (1972), Desdemona / Otello (1972), Mimì / La Bohème (1972), Butterfly (1974), Liù / Turandot (1974), the title role in Tosca (1975), the Marschallin / Der Rosenkavalier (1976), Angelica / Suor Angelica (1976), Tatyana / Eugene Onegin (1977), Elisabeth / Tannhäuser (1978), Elsa / Lohengrin (1980), Amelia / Un ballo in maschera (1981), the title role in Manon Lescaut (1981), Leonora / Il trovatore (1982) and the title role in Adriana Lecouvreur (1983).
At the Royal Opera House, London Żylis-Gara first sang in 1969 as Donna Elvira, returning in the same role in 1976 followed by the Figaro Countess in 1977 and Desdemona in 1980. She made her debut at La Scala, Milan as Desdemona in 1977 and sang Liù at the Orange Festival in 1979. Elsewhere in Europe she appeared with the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, the Warsaw National Opera, the Teatro Real, Madrid and the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; while in the Americas she appeared with the Chicago Lyric Opera and at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires.
Later roles included Maddalena / Andrea Chénier and Lisa / The Queen of Spades. Żylis-Gara remained active throughout the 1980s, singing Desdemona in Hamburg as late as 1988; after retiring from singing professionally she settled in Monte Carlo. In addition to her operatic work she was a distinguished recitalist and concert artist.
The possessor of a rich but flexible soprano voice, Żylis-Gara was a notably fine interpreter of the music of Mozart and Richard Strauss, where her seamless and refulgent legato could be heard to good effect. In the right roles she was able to generate strong levels of dramatic intensity.
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).
