June Anderson
June Anderson became one of the leading coloratura soprano singers in the 1980s, hailed as a successor to Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills. (When she met Sutherland, the Australian diva pointed out the similar width of their jaws and quipped, "I'm told the E flats are in that jaw!")
Anderson began taking singing lessons when she was eleven. She entered the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions at the age of seventeen and became the youngest person ever to be a finalist in that competition.
She took a standard university education, majoring in French at Yale, where she graduated with honors. Then she went to New York, determined that ". . . if in two years' time I was not famous I would go to law school." She says she ran out of money in nine months and at that point got stubborn about it. "I decided I would be a singer if it killed me."
She studied singing privately with Robert Leonard. She made her stage debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute. (She has been associated with the role ever since; it is her voice that sings the arias for that character in Milos Forman's film Amadeus.)
In 1981, she was a Richard Tucker Career Grant winner, then was invited to sing Rossini's Semiramide at the Rome Opera in 1982. Her seemingly effortless vocal production, exceptional agility, and ringing clear tone, plus a commanding and natural-looking stage presence made the appearance a success, leading to engagements in virtually every major opera house of Europe and the United States. Anderson is also the first non-Italian to win the annual Bellini d'Oro vocal prize.
She became known not only for her portrayals of standard coloratura parts -- in operas such as Rigoletto, I Lombardi, La donna del lago, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, and La Sonnambula. Her acclaimed roles include Rosalinde in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus; Desdemona in Otello; and Gilda in Rigoletto (her Metropolitan Opera debut role, singing opposite Pavarotti). She became known for her willingness to undertake unusual roles for recordings, such as Dafne in Il Nascimento dell'aurora by Albinoni (Erato, 1983); Madeleine in Le Postillon de Longjumeau by Adam (EMI, 1985); and Eudoxie in La Juive by Halévy (1986, 1989 Philips). She was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to record the role of Cunegonde in his definitive edition of Candide.
June Anderson has appeared on national television in Metropolitan Opera opening galas, on an Arts and Entertainment Leonard Bernstein birthday concert, in the Bernstein Tribute by John Williams and the Boston Pops, and in a Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Semiramide. In the docu-drama The Queen of Song, she portrayed the legendary nineteenth-century singer Adelina Patti.
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Discography
20 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Verdi: Rigoletto
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: La fille du régiment (Live)
June Anderson, Alfredo Kraus, Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Bruno Campanella
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 1 jan. 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini: Opera Arias from La sonnambula, I puritani, I Capuleti e i Montecchi & Beatrice di Tenda
Klassiek - Released by Warner Classics on 16 dec. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scarlatti: Salve Regina / Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
June Anderson, Cecilia Bartoli, Sinfonietta de Montréal, Charles Dutoit
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 7 mei 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orff: Carmina Burana
June Anderson, Philip Creech, Bernd Weikl, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), James Levine
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 jan. 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Rigoletto
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: La donna del lago
June Anderson, Martine Dupuy, Rockwell Blake, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Riccardo Muti
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Mosè in Egitto
June Anderson, Ruggero Raimondi, Philharmonia Orchestra, Claudio Scimone
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Halévy: La Juive
Antonio de Almeida, Júlia Varady, José Carreras, June Anderson, Philharmonia Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Bizet : La Jolie fille de Perth
June Anderson, Alfredo Kraus, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Georges Prêtre
Klassiek - Released by Warner Classics on 22 mei 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: I Lombardi
June Anderson, Richard leech, Samuel Ramey, James Levine
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thomas: Hamlet
Antonio de Almeida, Thomas Hampson, June Anderson, Samuel Ramey, London Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Warner Classics on 1 jan. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orff: Carmina Burana
June Anderson, Philip Creech, Bernd Weikl, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), James Levine, Chicago Symphony Chorus
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 jan. 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Maometto II
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini Scenes
June Anderson, Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Daniele Gatti
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 19 mrt. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini: Mosé in Egitto
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Albinoni: Il nascimento dell'aurora
June Anderson, Margarita Zimmermann, I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone
Klassiek - Released by Warner Classics on 1 jan. 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Adam: Le postillon de Lonjumeau
June Anderson, John Aler, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monté-Carlo, Thomas Fulton
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 1 jan. 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss, R.: Daphne
Opera - Released by Dynamic on 1 jan. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dal vivo in concerto
June Anderson, Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia-Romagna, Miguel Angel Gomez Martinez
Opera - Released by Bongiovanni on 3 feb. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo