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Ellen Shade
Ellen Shade
Ellen Shade
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Ellen Shade (born February 17, 1944, New York) is an American operatic soprano.[1]


Biography

[edit]

Her repertoire includes the Kaiserin in Die Frau ohne Schatten, the Marschallin Der Rosenkavalier, Chrysothemis Elektra, Ariadne Ariadne auf Naxos, Arabella, Katya Kabanova, Aida, Desdemona Otello, Amelia Un ballo in Maschera, Amelia Simon Boccanegra, Sieglinde Die Walkure, Elsa Lohengrin, Elisabeth Tannhauser, Eva Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. In Europe she has appeared at La Scala Milan, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Bastille and the Chatelet in Paris and in Vienna, Salzburg Festival, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt [Article Reference], Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva and Athens. In North America she has performed with virtually all the major opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Santa Fe, and the Canadian Opera in Toronto.

Conductors she has sung with include Claudio Abbado,[2] Richard Armstrong (conductor), Sylvian Cambreling, Christoph von Dohnányi, Mark Elder, John Fiore, Michael Gielen, Carlo Maria Giulini, Erich Leinsdorf, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, John Pritchard (conductor), Mstislav Rostropovich, Georg Solti, Horst Stein and Christian Thielemann.

Her Saffi, in The Gypsy Baron film conducted by Kurt Eichhorn, is available on DVD. She began her career with the American Savoyards and in other Off-off-Broadway companies in the 1960s.[3] In 1978 she created the part of Eve in Penderecki's Paradise Lost, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.[4]

Ms. Shade has appeared in leading roles in eight video productions such as Kaiserin in Die Frau ohne Schatten and Saffi in The Gypsy Baron. She has been a frequent clue in crossword puzzles, appearing in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Delta Sky and United Airlines magazines.

As a concert singer, Shade has been a frequent soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C., and the orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Minnesota, St. Louis, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia. In Europe, she has sung with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and the radio orchestras in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Helsinki, Rome, and Torino.

Shade is married to bass-trombonist Larry Benz and they make their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Notes and references

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Sources

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  • Milwaukee Sentinel, March 24, 1977 [1][dead link]
  • Charles Jahantz/Elizabeth Forbes, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, IV (1992), p. 338.
  • Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paradise Lost, 1978 cast Archived 2012-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
  • Warrack, John and West, Ewan, "Shade, Ellen" in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press, 1996
[edit]
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Ellen Shade

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Ellen Shade is an American operatic soprano known for her versatile lyric voice and international career performing leading roles in operas by Verdi, Mozart, Puccini, and contemporary composers at major houses across the United States and Europe. She began her professional training at Juilliard before transitioning from mezzo-soprano to leading soprano repertoire, building a reputation through performances that emphasized dramatic intensity and vocal flexibility. Shade enjoyed long associations with the Santa Fe Opera, where she served as an apprentice in 1968 and 1969 before debuting as Mimi in La bohème in 1974 and later taking on roles including Violetta in La traviata, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, and the title role in Arabella. She also appeared frequently at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where in 1978 she created the central role of Eve in the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Paradise Lost, a milestone that led to her debut at La Scala and prompted Penderecki to compose a Te Deum with her voice in mind. Her engagements extended to other prominent American companies such as San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera, alongside European theaters including Frankfurt, Hamburg, Brussels, and Amsterdam, as well as radio orchestras in Stuttgart, Turin, and with the BBC Northern. Shade’s repertoire encompassed classic heroines such as Violetta and Micaëla alongside modern and character parts, reflecting her commitment to both traditional and innovative works throughout her career.

Early life and education

Family background and early years

Ellen Shade was born on February 17, 1945, in New York City, New York, USA. A native New Yorker, she grew up in a very musical family environment that provided early exposure to music. Although her family was deeply engaged with music, they were not particularly interested in opera, and Shade herself did not initially consider it as a career path. She later began formal singing training after encouragement from an opera singer acquaintance.

Training at Juilliard and voice transition

Shade studied at the Juilliard School, where she initially trained and was classified as a mezzo-soprano. Coming from a very musical family that showed little particular interest in opera, she was drawn into the art form through a boyfriend who was an opera singer; he encouraged her to take voice lessons to understand what he was experiencing professionally. At first, she was not fully engaged with opera, finding conversations with other opera people uninteresting, but her enthusiasm grew as her vocal abilities improved. During her studies at Juilliard or in the period that followed, Shade transitioned to soprano repertoire. She went on to sing a variety of leading soprano parts, though as late as 1982 she described herself as still searching for her definitive fach and not having fully settled into one.

Early career

American Savoyards and off-off-Broadway

Ellen Shade began her professional career in the 1960s with the American Savoyards, an Off-Broadway repertory company devoted to Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. She performed mezzo-soprano roles consistent with her initial training at Juilliard, appearing in several productions during the company's 1965 season. In that year, she played Pitti-Sing in a revival of The Mikado, a classic mezzo-soprano part in the ensemble of female relatives. She also portrayed the title role of Iolanthe in the company's revival of Iolanthe, another mezzo-appropriate fairy character central to the plot. These performances took place at the Jan Hus Playhouse in New York City, a primary venue for the American Savoyards during this era, where she was seen in several mezzo parts. Her early involvement with the American Savoyards and other off-off-Broadway companies provided initial professional experience in light opera before her shift toward grand opera repertoire.

Santa Fe Opera apprenticeship and small roles

Ellen Shade served as an apprentice singer with the Santa Fe Opera in 1968 and 1969. This apprenticeship marked her initial immersion in professional opera production at the renowned summer festival. During the 1968 season, she performed the small role of one of the Orphans in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. In 1969, she appeared as the Page of Herodias in Strauss's Salome. These minor assignments provided her with valuable stage experience alongside established artists in a high-profile setting.

Breakthrough and rise in American opera

Leading roles at Santa Fe Opera

Ellen Shade advanced to leading roles at the Santa Fe Opera beginning in 1974, following her earlier apprenticeship with the company in 1968 and 1969. She made her principal debut as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème that year and also performed as Climene in Francesco Cavalli's L’Egisto. In subsequent seasons, Shade continued to assume prominent soprano assignments across a varied repertoire. In 1975, she sang Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the title role of Salud in Manuel de Falla's La vida breve. The next year, she returned as Climene in L’Egisto and portrayed Violetta in Verdi's La traviata. In 1977, she appeared as Mistress Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff. Shade's engagements with the company extended into the early 1980s with further Mozart and Strauss roles. She performed Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute during the 1979 and 1980 seasons. In 1982, she sang the Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Her appearances concluded in 1983 with the title role in a new production of Richard Strauss's Arabella, conducted by John Crosby.

World premiere of Paradise Lost

Ellen Shade created the central role of Eve in Krzysztof Penderecki's Paradise Lost, which received its world premiere at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on November 29, 1978, after being delayed from its originally scheduled 1976 performance. The postponement proved beneficial for Shade, who later reflected that the additional two years allowed her to mature as a performer and better manage the production's intense demands. Her portrayal of Eve marked a major breakthrough, representing her first exposure to a significant international audience and directly facilitating her debut at La Scala, where she subsequently enjoyed a lasting positive relationship with the theater. Shade's prior leading roles at the Santa Fe Opera had already established her presence in American opera, positioning her for this high-profile contemporary assignment. Shade went on to collaborate again with Penderecki on his Te Deum, a 37-minute work for four solo voices, chorus, and orchestra that he composed with her voice specifically in mind after requesting her participation. She described the piece as spectacular and stylistically akin to Paradise Lost, highlighting a striking moment where her entry in an unrelated key at the chorale's close delivered the line "Save your people, God; Jesus died for us."

Major opera career

United States opera houses

Ellen Shade maintained a substantial presence in American opera, appearing with many of the country's leading companies. She performed at the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her longest affiliation was with the Santa Fe Opera, where she began as an apprentice in 1968, singing the Orphan in Der Rosenkavalier, followed by the Page of Herodias in Salome in 1969. She made her mainstage debut there in 1974 as Mimi in La bohème and Climene in L’Egisto. Subsequent seasons featured her as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte in 1975, Violetta in La traviata in 1976, Mistress Alice Ford in Falstaff in 1977, Pamina in The Magic Flute in 1979 and 1980, Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro in 1982, and the title role in Arabella in 1983. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she appeared multiple times and achieved particular acclaim for creating the central role of Eve in the 1978 world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Paradise Lost, a performance she described as personally successful and instrumental in expanding her international career. She sang Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the San Francisco Opera during the 1978 season, including in several performances and a live broadcast. Shade also performed with the Houston Grand Opera and Dallas Opera, contributing to her broad engagement with major regional and national companies throughout her career in the United States.

European opera houses and festivals

Ellen Shade's international reputation led to engagements at leading European opera houses and festivals, where she performed leading soprano roles in works by Strauss, Wagner, and Verdi. Following her acclaimed participation in the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's Paradise Lost at Lyric Opera of Chicago, she made her debut at La Scala in Milan and maintained a strong ongoing relationship with the theater. She appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, singing the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella. At the Salzburg Festival, she performed the Empress (Kaiserin) in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten in 1992, alternating with Cheryl Studer in a new production conducted by Georg Solti with the Vienna Philharmonic. She reprised the demanding role of the Kaiserin in the same opera at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam in 1996. Her European career also encompassed performances at the Opéra Bastille and Châtelet in Paris, Vienna State Opera, and houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Brussels, Geneva, and Athens.

Repertoire and performance style

Recordings, broadcasts, and media appearances

Personal life

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