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MARILYN HORNE

"I MUST ABSORB EVERYTHING WHILE I'M STILL SINGING AND STEP ONTO THE STAGES OF MY
MANY HOMES, AND LOOK OUT AT THE FAMILIAR SURROUNDINGS, AT THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE
COME TO HEAR ME, TO HEAR MUSIC." -MARILYN HORNE

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MARILYN BERNEICE HORNE WAS BORN ON JANUARY 16, 1934 IN BRADFORD, PENNSYLVANIA.
HER FATHER, BENTZ HORNE, WAS A STRONG MUSICAL INFLUENCE IN HER LIFE RIGHT UP
UNTIL HIS DEATH IN JULY OF 1956. HE ENCOURAGED HIS DAUGHTER TO PERSUE HER
MUSICAL DREAMS AND SHE DID JUST THAT.


MARILYN MADE HER OPERATIC DEBUT AT THE AGE OF TWENTY IN THE ROLE OF HATA IN
SMETANA'S THE BARTERED BRIDE FOR THE LOS ANGELES GUILD OPERA IN THE FALL OF
1954. THAT SUMMER, SHE SANG THE VOICE OF CARMEN JONES IN OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN'S
RE-CREATION OF BIZET'S CARMEN.


WHEN HER FATHER DIED, MARILYN TRAVELLED TO EUROPE IN THE HOPES OF FURTHERING HER
CAREER. SHE TRAVELLED TO GELSENKIRCHEN, GERMANY AND JOINED THE GELSENKIRCHEN
OPERA COMPANY. SHE PERFORMED IN MANY OF THE COMPANY'S PRODUCTIONS AS A SOPRANO,
SINGING SUCH ROLES AS MIMI IN LA BOHÈME, GIULIETTA IN THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, AND
AMELIA IN SIMON BOCCANEGRA. HER FIRST GREAT CAREER SUCCESS OCCURED AT THE
INAUGURATION OF GELSENKIRCHEN'S NEW OPERA HOUSE ON MAY 22, 1960 AS MARIE IN
BERG'S WOZZECK. SHE RECEIVED RAVE REVIEWS AND MARIE, A ROLE SHE HAD NOT WANTED
TO PERFORM, BECAME HER TICKET BACK TO THE UNITED STATES. BRENDA LEWIS, ENGAGED
TO SING MARIE IN SAN FRANCISCO, WAS ILL AND MARILYN LEFT GELSENKIRCHEN TO
PERFORM THE ROLE.


ON JULY 1, 1960, MARILYN MARRIED CONDUCTOR HENRY LEWIS. THEIR ONLY CHILD,
ANGELA, WAS BORN ON JUNE 14, 1965. THE COUPLE DIVORCED IN OCTOBER OF 1974.


BECAUSE OF HER PREGNANCY, MARILYN WAS FORCED TO WITHDRAW FROM A PERFORMANCE OF
DONIZETTI'S LUCREZIA BORGIA FOR THE AMERICAN OPERA SOCIETY IN NEW YORK CITY. AS
A REPLACEMENT, THEY HIRED A NEW SPANISH SOPRANO NAMED MONTSERRAT CABALLÉ, WHO
THRILLED THE NEW YORK AUDIENCE AND BECAME A STAR OVERNIGHT.


IT WAS SOON AFTER THE SAN FRANCISCO WOZZECK THAT MARILYN MADE HER FIRST
APPEARANCE WITH JOAN SUTHERLAND. MARILYN PERFORMED AGNESE OPPOSITE SUTHERLAND IN
A TOWN HALL CONCERT VERSION OF BELLINI'S BEATRICE DI TENDA IN FEBRUARY 1961. IN
1969, HORNE TEAMED UP WITH JOAN SUTHERLAND AGAIN WHEN SHE PERFORMED THE ROLE OF
ZERLINA IN DON GIOVANNI WITH THE ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA.


NOW THAT SHE WAS AN INTERNATIONAL STAR, MARILYN BEGAN PERFORMING REGULARLY IN
THE WORLD'S GREAT OPERA HOUSES. SHE MADE HER COVENT GARDEN DEBUT WAS IN OCTOBER
OF 1964 AS MARIE IN WOZZECK. HER LA SCALA DEBUT WAS AS JOCASTA IN STRAVINSKY'S
OEDIPUS REX ON MARCH 13, 1969. HER METROPOLITAN OPERA DEBUT WAS AS ADALGISA
OPPOSITE JOAN SUTHERLAND'S NORMA IN BELLINI'S NORMA. SHE SANG MANY MORE TIMES AT
THE MET, AND OPENED THE 1972/73 SEASON AS CARMEN ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1972. IN 1984,
SHE BROUGHT HANDEL'S RINALDO TO THE MET, THE FIRST HANDEL OPERA EVER PERFORMED
THERE.


MARILYN HORNE HAS BEEN CALLED "PROBABLY THE GREATEST SINGER IN THE WORLD" (OPERA
NEWS, 1981). SHE IS, WITHOUT A DOUBT, ONE OF THE GREATEST MEZZO-SOPRANOS IN
OPERA HISTORY AND IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST ROSSINI INTERPRETER EVER. SHE HAS
BEEN SINGING FOR OVER 40 YEARS AND HER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE OPERA WORLD LIVE ON
IN HER NUMEROUS RECORDINGS, AMONG WHICH IS MEYERBEER'S LE PROPHÈTE, A ROLE SHE
WAS ALSO WELL KNOWN FOR.


TODAY, MARILYN HORNE WORKS AS THE VOCAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR AT THE MUSIC ACADEMY OF
THE WEST IN SANTA BARBARA AND HAS ALSO SET UP THE MARILYN HORNE FOUNDATION,
WHICH HELPS TO SUPPORT YOUNG SINGERS. MS HORNE'S LAST SOLO CLASSICAL RECITAL WAS
ON NOVEMBER 28, 1999, AT THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY CENTER. THE LAST TIME SHE
PERFORMED CLASSICAL MUSIC WAS ON JANUARY 16, 2000, AT THE MARILYN HORNE
FOUNDATION CONCERT AT CARNEGIE HALL.

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