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Lili Chookasian: Revered American Contralto Dies

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  • Lili Chookasian: Revered American Contralto Dies

    LILI CHOOKASIAN: REVERED AMERICAN CONTRALTO WHOSE CLOSE ASSOCIATION
    WITH THE METROPOLITAN OPERA SPANNED NEARLY 25 YEARS AND 300
    PERFORMANCES

    The Times
    April 26, 2012 Thursday

    London Operatic voices of truly heroic scale are seldom encountered
    thesedays. For three decades opera's most prominent exponent of
    mainstreamcontralto roles was Lili Chookasian, possessor of a
    lusciouslydark, deep, thrillingly ample instrument. Enhanced by
    impeccablemusicianship and a vivid personality, Chookasian's voice
    made hera longtime favourite at the Metropolitan Opera and an
    enormouslyacclaimed performer with major orchestras. A
    first-generation American, she was the daughter of a couple who
    hademigrated from Armenia six years before she was born in Chicago
    (herpride in her Armenian heritage was passionate and lifelong).
    Havingdone a good deal of singing in high school, Chookasian studied
    withPhilip Manuel and established herself in her twenties as a
    concertand oratorio singer. Such an outstanding voice did not go
    unnoticed bythe Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with whom Chookasian made
    an indelibleimpression in Mahler's Symphony No 2 under Bruno Walter in
    1955. Her marriage and growing family kept Chookasian away from opera
    until1959 when, aged 38, she made her stage debut as Adalgisa in Norma
    atArkansas State Opera. Shortly thereafter she began coaching with
    thecelebrated Rosa Ponselle, who arranged for her to sing first
    Azucena inIl trovatore and then Amneris in Aïda at the Baltimore
    Opera. She madea stunning New York Philharmonic debut in 1961 singing
    in Prokofiev'sAlexander Nevksy. Conducting was Thomas Schippers, who
    brought herto Italy that summer to perform the same work at the
    Spoleto Festival. Chookasian's first invitation to appear at the Met
    came at a time whenshe was unwilling to be parted from her family for
    an extended period. Once a Met engagement became more manageable for
    her, she made herdebut in 1962 as La Cieca in La Gioconda. That
    success initiated an association with the company that endured for24
    seasons in 28 roles, encompassing most principal and supportingparts
    available to a contralto in the standard repertoire. Tobe expected
    were the mothers, grandmothers, maids and nurses (forexample, in La
    sonnambula, Cavalleria rusticana, Hansel and Gretel,Les contes
    d'Hoffmann, Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov and Jenufa). Substantially
    more rewarding roles included Wagner's Erda (Ringcycle), the three
    contralto roles in Puccini's Il Trittico, Madelon inAndrea Chenier,
    and Leocadia Begbick in Rise and Fall of the City ofMahagonny. Of the
    dramatic Verdi roles in Chookasian's stage repertoire(she was a superb
    interpreter of all three), she sang Ulrica 14 timeswith the Met, but
    Azucena came her way on just four occasions thereand Amneris only
    once. She sang Death in Stravinsky's The Nightingale(Met premiere),
    was gloriously hearty as Auntie in Peter Grimes, andshone in such
    comic parts as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff and theMaharanee in
    Menotti's The Last Savage (US premiere).Her 290th andfinal Met
    performance (indeed, her last appearance onstage in opera)was as
    Gertrude in Romeo et Juliette on February 17, 1986. Chookasian was
    also successful at New York City Opera and the leadingcompanies of
    Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, Houston, Cincinnati,and Montreal.
    She returned to Baltimore Opera in 1976 as the Queenin the world
    premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's Ines de Castro. With a busy family
    life, plus her commitments with American operacompanies and
    orchestras, it was inevitable that Europe would playa secondary role
    in Chookasian's activities. Besides Spoleto,she appeared at the
    Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, as well asthe Zurich Opernhaus.
    Particularly meaningful for her was theopportunity to perform in
    Yerevan, where she was heard in Aïda andDikran Tchouhadjian's opera
    Arshak II. A supremely eloquent concert artist, Chookasian sang all
    the music onewould expect of her voice type, with particular success
    in the VerdiRequiem, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, and major works of
    Mahler. Shewas heard with the leading orchestras of New York,
    Philadelphia,Cleveland, London, and Vienna, among many others. In
    Chookasian's commercial discography the highlight is surely herdeeply
    moving performance in Alexander Nevsky with Schippers andthe New York
    Philharmonic. She sings under Leinsdorf in the VerdiRequiem and
    Menotti's rarely heard cantata The Death of the Bishop ofBrindisi. Her
    interpretation of Das Lied von der Erde is documentedin performances
    led by Susskind and Ormandy (with the latter she alsorecorded
    Beethoven's Symphony No 9). She participates in Bernstein'srecordings
    of both Mahler's Symphony No 8 and Vaughan Williams'sSerenade to
    Music. No doubt Chookasian took particular pleasure inrecording two
    works by the Armenian-American composer Richard Yardumian- Come
    Creator Spirit (subtitled "A New Mass in English") and SymphonyNo 2.
    Several "pirated" performances demonstrate the excellence
    ofChookasian's Wagner and Verdi roles (including a magnificent
    Amnerisin Montreal in 1965) and her Met portrayals in Der fliegende
    Hollander,Eugene Onegin and The Last Savage. Having taught at
    Northwestern University earlier in her career,Chookasian joined the
    voice faculty at Yale University in 1985. Seventeen years later Yale's
    School of Music presented her with itshighest honour, the Sanford
    Medal. She was made Professor Emeritain 2010. Chookasian was
    remarkably courageous, having triumphed over seriousillness: her
    initial bout of breast cancer occurred in 1956, hersecond five years
    later. She was married to George Gavejian from 1941 until his death in
    1987,and is survived by two sons and a daughter. Lili Chookasian,
    operatic contralto, was born on August 1, 1921. Shedied on April 10,
    2012, aged 90



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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