Tatiana Troyanos

Tatiana Troyanos (September 12, 1938 – August 21, 1993) was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent, remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation" (Boston Globe).Her voice, "a paradoxical voice—larger than life yet intensely human, brilliant yet warm, lyric yet dramatic"—"was the kind you recognize after one bar, and never forget," wrote Cori Ellison in Opera News.Troyanos' performances "covered the full range of operatic history" (New York Times) in an international career of three decades which also produced a variety of memorable operatic recordings, among them Carmen (co-starring Plácido Domingo and conducted by Georg Solti), cited by Classicalite almost four decades later as "the finest of all Carmens." After ten years based at the Hamburg State Opera, Troyanos became widely known for her work with the Metropolitan Opera beginning in 1976, with over 270 performances (several dozen of them broadcast or televised) spanning twenty-two major roles. "She was extraordinarily intense, beautiful, and stylish in roles as diverse as Eboli, Santuzza, Geschwitz, Venus, Kundry, Jocasta, Carmen, and Giulietta, in addition to her great 'trouser' roles," said the Met's longtime Music Director, James Levine. The Met's live telecasts of her "signature" trouser roles, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, have been preserved on DVD, along with her portrayals of Eboli (in Don Carlo), Santuzza (in Cavalleria rusticana), Venus (in Tannhäuser), and Didon (in Les Troyens).