Steber

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While we are limping down memory lane, I wanted to just put in a word
for Steber, whom I only heard live on a couple of ocassions. She only
comes to mind now because there was, in Town Hall, some kind of Steber
Foundation benefit. I think it may have been a one-off, although
planned for more, and she was giving out some awards. It had to be
late 80s, and after her students sang she came out with them and did
the Rosenkavalier trio, with not a lot of voice, but still pretty
cool. She was done up with furs and jewels, and ended up looking a
little bit at that point like Marie Dressler. I remember all this
because Peerce was there as well, he looked old, although he was still
singing and recording, and was dressed in a grey suit and had the very
amiable conversation with Steber that I was in earshot of for some
reason, although I don't know why. He was a complete gentleman (no one
else from the real opera community was there).

I heard Steber only a handful of times live, with mixed feelings,
because even then there were mixed results, but for me, having come
into New York from the boonies, it was pretty amazing to see a
'legend' who was still around.

Richard

[Pat]

Post by ***@hotnail.com
While we are limping down memory lane, I wanted to just put in a word
for Steber, whom I only heard live on a couple of ocassions. She only
comes to mind now because there was, in Town Hall, some kind of Steber
Foundation benefit. I think it may have been a one-off, although
planned for more, and she was giving out some awards. It had to be
late 80s, and after her students sang she came out with them and did
the Rosenkavalier trio, with not a lot of voice, but still pretty
cool. She was done up with furs and jewels, and ended up looking a
little bit at that point like Marie Dressler. I remember all this
because Peerce was there as well, he looked old, although he was still
singing and recording, and was dressed in a grey suit and had the very
amiable conversation with Steber that I was in earshot of for some
reason, although I don't know why. He was a complete gentleman (no one
else from the real opera community was there).
I heard Steber only a handful of times live, with mixed feelings,
because even then there were mixed results, but for me, having come
into New York from the boonies, it was pretty amazing to see a
'legend' who was still around.
Richard

================

When I began reading about some of the great singers some years ago it
struck me that Eleanor Steber was perhaps the most versatile 20th
century female singer. 150 years ago many of the great female singers
were capable of singing in almost any operatic style. But as we
neared the middle of the 20th century, all but a few were pretty well
fached up. But Steber sang some Wagner, some French opera, and
although she did not sing a lot of non-Mozart Italian opera, she had a
reputation as a fine Minnie, besides being a first-rate exponent of
several roles in Mozart and especially Strauss.

Steber headed the vocal division of the Cleveland Institute in the
1960's (my last decade in that area), but unfortunately a few years
before I took up an interest in classic music, but she had the
reputation of being something of a character. Many of you have
probably heard the story of how the hard-living Steber showed up at
the old Abbey Road Studios one morning badly hung over after a night
of partying. She had been scheduled to record some Mozart or Strauss
selections that day, but mumbled something about not feeling like
singing "that stuff".

Disgusted, but hoping to carry on so that all assembled would not have
wasted an entire day, the producer or director or whatever you call it
of the proceedings, asked a ghastly-looking and ghastly-sounding
Eleanor Steber what she "did" feel like singing.

And she proceeded to record a "Depuis Le Jour" which ranked with the
finest any of those present had ever heard.

Pat

[[e-mail]]

Post by ***@hotnail.com
While we are limping down memory lane, I wanted to just put in a word
for Steber, whom I only heard live on a couple of ocassions. She only
comes to mind now because there was, in Town Hall, some kind of Steber
Foundation benefit. I think it may have been a one-off, although
planned for more, and she was giving out some awards. It had to be
late 80s, and after her students sang she came out with them and did
the Rosenkavalier trio, with not a lot of voice, but still pretty
cool. She was done up with furs and jewels, and ended up looking a
little bit at that point like Marie Dressler. I remember all this
because Peerce was there as well, he looked old, although he was still
singing and recording, and was dressed in a grey suit and had the very
amiable conversation with Steber that I was in earshot of for some
reason, although I don't know why. He was a complete gentleman (no one
else from the real opera community was there).
I heard Steber only a handful of times live, with mixed feelings,
because even then there were mixed results, but for me, having come
into New York from the boonies, it was pretty amazing to see a
'legend' who was still around.
Richard

Steber was my first Donna Anna in 1959 at the Met, in a cast that
included George London as the Don, and Nicolai Gedda as Ottavio. She
was still a wonderful Mozart singer at this time, but already had sung
some Tosca performances that same season, one of which I saw, also
with Bergonzi, that were not good, IMO. Though she did sing a number
of Puccini roles, I do not think she was well suited to them, though
her 1953 Fanciulla from Florence is quite special in many ways.

I think she will best be remembered as a peerless Mozartian, above
all. By 1960 or so, the voice seemed to decline rapidly, as did her
Met engagements. Did I read somewhere that she and Bing did not get
along?

I was present the night she substituted for Kirsten and sang Minnie in
Fanciulla in 1965-66. That night was embarrasing, as not only didn't
she remember the role, but she appeared to be in a semi-inebriated
state on stage. Corelli cancelled after Act 1, because, IMO, he was
just unwilling to continue this awful performance. A tenor named
Gaetano Bardini or Bordini, or Bordoni, finished the opera, and was
about a foot shorter than Corelli, and wore costumes that were pinned
up. He was not good, and that may have been his only Met appearance.

At Steber's best, which I have only heard on recordings and live
performance CDs or tapes, she was one of the really great American
sopranos. I remember her gorgeous recording of "Summertime" in the old
RCA 50 Years of Great Operatic Singing. Also a gorgeous "Depuis le
jour" from Firestone, and many more.

Best,
Ed

[gggg gggg]

Post by ***@hotnail.com
While we are limping down memory lane, I wanted to just put in a word
for Steber, whom I only heard live on a couple of ocassions. She only
comes to mind now because there was, in Town Hall, some kind of Steber
Foundation benefit. I think it may have been a one-off, although
planned for more, and she was giving out some awards. It had to be
late 80s, and after her students sang she came out with them and did
the Rosenkavalier trio, with not a lot of voice, but still pretty
cool. She was done up with furs and jewels, and ended up looking a
little bit at that point like Marie Dressler. I remember all this
because Peerce was there as well, he looked old, although he was still
singing and recording, and was dressed in a grey suit and had the very
amiable conversation with Steber that I was in earshot of for some
reason, although I don't know why. He was a complete gentleman (no one
else from the real opera community was there).
I heard Steber only a handful of times live, with mixed feelings,
because even then there were mixed results, but for me, having come
into New York from the boonies, it was pretty amazing to see a
'legend' who was still around.
Richard

(Youtube upload w/Steber):

Richard Strauss “Der Rosenkavalier” (Erna Berger & Fritz Reiner • Metropolitan Opera, 1949)

[gggg gggg]

Post by ***@hotnail.com
While we are limping down memory lane, I wanted to just put in a word
for Steber, whom I only heard live on a couple of ocassions. She only
comes to mind now because there was, in Town Hall, some kind of Steber
Foundation benefit. I think it may have been a one-off, although
planned for more, and she was giving out some awards. It had to be
late 80s, and after her students sang she came out with them and did
the Rosenkavalier trio, with not a lot of voice, but still pretty
cool. She was done up with furs and jewels, and ended up looking a
little bit at that point like Marie Dressler. I remember all this
because Peerce was there as well, he looked old, although he was still
singing and recording, and was dressed in a grey suit and had the very
amiable conversation with Steber that I was in earshot of for some
reason, although I don't know why. He was a complete gentleman (no one
else from the real opera community was there).
I heard Steber only a handful of times live, with mixed feelings,
because even then there were mixed results, but for me, having come
into New York from the boonies, it was pretty amazing to see a
'legend' who was still around.
Richard

(Recent Youtube upload):

Eleanor Steber; "VIER LETZTE LIEDER"; Richard Strauss

[gggg gggg]

Post by ***@hotnail.com
While we are limping down memory lane, I wanted to just put in a word
for Steber, whom I only heard live on a couple of ocassions. She only
comes to mind now because there was, in Town Hall, some kind of Steber
Foundation benefit. I think it may have been a one-off, although
planned for more, and she was giving out some awards. It had to be
late 80s, and after her students sang she came out with them and did
the Rosenkavalier trio, with not a lot of voice, but still pretty
cool. She was done up with furs and jewels, and ended up looking a
little bit at that point like Marie Dressler. I remember all this
because Peerce was there as well, he looked old, although he was still
singing and recording, and was dressed in a grey suit and had the very
amiable conversation with Steber that I was in earshot of for some
reason, although I don't know why. He was a complete gentleman (no one
else from the real opera community was there).
I heard Steber only a handful of times live, with mixed feelings,
because even then there were mixed results, but for me, having come
into New York from the boonies, it was pretty amazing to see a
'legend' who was still around.
Richard

(Upcoming radio program):

https://www.wfmt.com/2022/05/29/the-art-of-eleanor-steber