A Tough lady ! For her really-definitely-last-performance ,the indestructible Mme.Gorr sang twice in "Pikovaja dama" - in Ghent and in Antwerp.
(http://www.martin-acke.be/bekende_zelzatenaren/rita-gorr.GIF)
From : Great singers of the world:
She was born Marguerite Geirnaert in Zelzate on 18 February, 1926, studying in Ghent, then at the Brussels Conservatory with Vina Bovy and Germaine Hoerner. Gorr made her operatic debut at the Antwerp Opera as Fricka. Thereafter she was engaged at the Strasbourg Opera until 1952, also the year of her first appearances at the Opéra-Comique and the Grand Opéra. Strasbourg remained more or less her artistic home, where she sang a number of important roles such as Dalila, Orphée, Sieglinde, Fricka, Venus, Margared in Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys, Hérodiade, La Principessa di Bouillon in Adriana Leucouvreur, and Amneris. Other roles included Azucena, Herodias, Kostelnicka in Jenufa, the Mother in Louise, Geneviève, Mme de la Haltière in Cendrillon, Santuzza, Iphigénie and Medée, among others. The artist returned to Strasbourg in 1957, as Ortrud opposite Wolfgang Windgassen. She devided her time over the next years between the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique, where she sang in Oberon, Les Indes Galantes and Rigoletto. She left the Opéra, however, feeling the roles she was offered were not true to her personality. In 1957, after several months of touring, she returned to the Opéra and repeated her Venus. Gorr explained that she felt very happy in the "big family atmosphere" and remained there until 1972, although she had to face strong competition with Hélène Bouvier, Inès Chabannes and Denise Scharley. The Opéra-Comique saw her as Brangäne and Venus throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The artist made her Bayreuth debut in 1958 as Fricka in Das Rheingold. Fricka in Die Walküre and the Third Norn in Götterdämmerung followed. Gorr found great success as Ortrud in Wieland Wagner's production, with Elisabeth Grümmer as incomparable Elsa and Sándor Kónya as Lohengrin. Windgassen wanted her as his partner in Parsifal, but she refused. It was in Rome where she sang her first Kundry, repeating it at La Scala under Cluytens. During the 1960s and 1970s she frequently sang in Vienna, Bordeaux and Ghent. Her career at the Met included 41 performances. She was offered to sing Ariane in Barbe-Bleu, Isolde (offered by Solti) and Brünnhilde (Wolfgang Windgassen wanted her to sing the role), but she feared the high tessitura and refused. In the 1990s (!) she was heard as Herodias, Madame de Croissy in Les Dialogues des Carmélites, the Countess in Queen of Spades, Marthe in Faust and Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin, highly acknowledged for her imposing stage presence, not only by her devoted audience but also by today's stage directors who love to work with this innovative artist.
I have a few of her performances and enjoy her singing a great deal. One that is readily available is Amneris in the Solti Aida....fearsome. She was a little overpowering as Delilah and I have her singing those arias. Most men would have laid down trembling and submitted to be shorn like lambs.
It is somewhat of an old fashioned voice production, grand, rich and contralto deep.
It was news to me that she was still singing publically.
Mike
I have her as the Prioress (Mme. de Croissy) on Nagano's Dialogues of the Carmelites. Her death scene gives me shivers! :D
Gorr was sometimes a mite placid (Gluck's Iphigénie, Dalila), but when the role really suited her she was fired to tremendous heights of expression and communicativeness. In this she was aided by that huge instrument, the like of which I don't think we have heard since.
I'm really surprised to read that she was considered for Brunnhilde and Isolde. I mean, this is really senseless. Like Rudolf Bing wanting Callas as a Queen of the Night....
I really wish she had sung and recorded Klytaemnestra though. She was born to sing it.
Well that gives the rest of us hope.
Diana Ross was on TV recently. At the age of 63, she is still a diva.
ZB
Quote from: knight on June 18, 2007, 11:52:52 AM
One that is readily available is Amneris in the Solti Aida....fearsome.
I have that one, too. I agree, it's excellent!