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LILI CHOOKASIAN, 90, CONTRALTO PRAISED FOR HER VELVETY VOICE
By MARGALIT FOX
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/arts/music/lili-chookasian-opera-singer-dies-at-90.html
April 12 2012
Lili Chookasian, an American singer who in the 1960s and afterward
was among the most prominent contraltos in the world, died on Tuesday
at her home in Branford, Conn. She was 90.
Her family confirmed the death.
Ms. Chookasian was a principal singer with the Metropolitan Opera for
a quarter-century, appearing there 290 times from 1962 to 1986. She
also sang in recital and was a soloist with many of the world's
leading orchestras.
Critics and operagoers hailed Ms. Chookasian as a "real contralto."
Where many contraltos are endowed with the lightish, dusky equivalent
of a viola, her voice - immense, deep, velvety and burnished -
put a cello at her command. She was also praised for her sensitive
musicianship, powerful dramatic characterizations and impeccable
diction. (She had grown up speaking Armenian.)
Ms. Chookasian made her Met debut in 1962, at 40, in the role of La
Cieca in "La Gioconda," by Ponchielli; the production also starred
Franco Corelli, Robert Merrill and Zinka Milanov.
She was perhaps most closely associated with the work of Gian Carlo
Menotti. At the Met, she sang the Maharanee in the United States
premiere of his opera "The Last Savage." On loan from the company,
she made her New York City Opera debut in 1963 as Madame Flora,
the title character of his two-act opera "The Medium."
Her other Met roles included Amneris in Verdi's "Aida," Erda in
Wagner's "Rheingold" and "Siegfried" and Mamma Lucia in Mascagni's
"Cavalleria Rusticana."
As Mamma Lucia, she let her sly sense of humor spill, quietly, onto the
stage. As Opera News reported in its obituary this week, the soprano
Eileen Farrell once recounted what happened when she sang the part
of the beleaguered peasant girl Santuzza opposite Ms. Chookasian in
the 1960s.
On many a night, as Santuzza poured out her troubles to Mamma Lucia
in the impassioned aria "Voi lo Sapete" - about how the caddish hero
Turiddu has seduced and then traduced her - Ms. Chookasian would lean
across the table and whisper conspiratorially: "You're kidding. ... He
said that?"
The daughter of Armenian immigrants, Lillian Phoebe Chookasian was born
in Chicago on Aug. 1, 1921; her father was a machinist and toolmaker. A
gifted singer from girlhood on, she made her professional debut in
the 1940s as a soloist on the radio show "Hymns of All Churches,"
broadcast nationally on the Columbia network.
Ms. Chookasian began her career as a concert singer, making a notable
appearance in 1955 as a soloist in Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony
with the Chicago Symphony under Bruno Walter. She made her operatic
debut in 1959, as Adalgisa in Bellini's "Norma" with the Arkansas State
Opera and later studied with the distinguished soprano Rosa Ponselle.
In 1961, Ms. Chookasian was chosen by the conductor Thomas Schippers
to appear with the New York Philharmonic in Prokofiev's cantata
"Alexander Nevsky." Her long solo, as a girl searching the battlefield
for the body of her lover, drew wide critical praise; her performance
is preserved in a Columbia recording.
If Ms. Chookasian arrived at the Met somewhat on the late side, there
was ample reason. Offered a contract with the company for the 1961
season, she demurred, saying she did not want to leave her husband
and three children.
She was by then also a two-time survivor of breast cancer, an illness
that, given the prevailing taboos of the era, she did not disclose
to her managers. The illness was first diagnosed in 1956, and Ms.
Chookasian was given six months to live. She underwent a mastectomy
that year and a second in 1961, after the cancer recurred.
As was widely reported, Ms. Chookasian, making her Met debut on March
9, 1962, sang so well that she received an immense ovation after her
aria "Voce di Donna."
Her last performance with the Met was on May 17, 1986, as Gertrude
in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette."
After retiring from the opera stage, Ms. Chookasian spent many years
as a faculty member at the Yale School of Music. She had previously
taught at Northwestern University.
Ms. Chookasian's husband, George Gavejian, whom she married in 1941,
died in 1987. She is survived by two sons, John and Paul; a daughter,
Valerie Klutch; 11 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
By all accounts, Ms. Chookasian was upstaged only once, in 1967,
while singing Madame Flora with the Cincinnati Opera. At the time,
the company performed at the Cincinnati Zoo, a setting fraught with
the potential for unintended consequences.
In one of the opera's dramatic moments, Madame Flora, descending into
madness, fears there is a ghost in her room. "Who's there?" she cries.
That night, as if on cue, a wandering peacock screamed back, "Meeee!"
At that point, Ms. Chookasian later said, she knew she had lost the
audience for good.
By MARGALIT FOX
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/arts/music/lili-chookasian-opera-singer-dies-at-90.html
April 12 2012
Lili Chookasian, an American singer who in the 1960s and afterward
was among the most prominent contraltos in the world, died on Tuesday
at her home in Branford, Conn. She was 90.
Her family confirmed the death.
Ms. Chookasian was a principal singer with the Metropolitan Opera for
a quarter-century, appearing there 290 times from 1962 to 1986. She
also sang in recital and was a soloist with many of the world's
leading orchestras.
Critics and operagoers hailed Ms. Chookasian as a "real contralto."
Where many contraltos are endowed with the lightish, dusky equivalent
of a viola, her voice - immense, deep, velvety and burnished -
put a cello at her command. She was also praised for her sensitive
musicianship, powerful dramatic characterizations and impeccable
diction. (She had grown up speaking Armenian.)
Ms. Chookasian made her Met debut in 1962, at 40, in the role of La
Cieca in "La Gioconda," by Ponchielli; the production also starred
Franco Corelli, Robert Merrill and Zinka Milanov.
She was perhaps most closely associated with the work of Gian Carlo
Menotti. At the Met, she sang the Maharanee in the United States
premiere of his opera "The Last Savage." On loan from the company,
she made her New York City Opera debut in 1963 as Madame Flora,
the title character of his two-act opera "The Medium."
Her other Met roles included Amneris in Verdi's "Aida," Erda in
Wagner's "Rheingold" and "Siegfried" and Mamma Lucia in Mascagni's
"Cavalleria Rusticana."
As Mamma Lucia, she let her sly sense of humor spill, quietly, onto the
stage. As Opera News reported in its obituary this week, the soprano
Eileen Farrell once recounted what happened when she sang the part
of the beleaguered peasant girl Santuzza opposite Ms. Chookasian in
the 1960s.
On many a night, as Santuzza poured out her troubles to Mamma Lucia
in the impassioned aria "Voi lo Sapete" - about how the caddish hero
Turiddu has seduced and then traduced her - Ms. Chookasian would lean
across the table and whisper conspiratorially: "You're kidding. ... He
said that?"
The daughter of Armenian immigrants, Lillian Phoebe Chookasian was born
in Chicago on Aug. 1, 1921; her father was a machinist and toolmaker. A
gifted singer from girlhood on, she made her professional debut in
the 1940s as a soloist on the radio show "Hymns of All Churches,"
broadcast nationally on the Columbia network.
Ms. Chookasian began her career as a concert singer, making a notable
appearance in 1955 as a soloist in Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony
with the Chicago Symphony under Bruno Walter. She made her operatic
debut in 1959, as Adalgisa in Bellini's "Norma" with the Arkansas State
Opera and later studied with the distinguished soprano Rosa Ponselle.
In 1961, Ms. Chookasian was chosen by the conductor Thomas Schippers
to appear with the New York Philharmonic in Prokofiev's cantata
"Alexander Nevsky." Her long solo, as a girl searching the battlefield
for the body of her lover, drew wide critical praise; her performance
is preserved in a Columbia recording.
If Ms. Chookasian arrived at the Met somewhat on the late side, there
was ample reason. Offered a contract with the company for the 1961
season, she demurred, saying she did not want to leave her husband
and three children.
She was by then also a two-time survivor of breast cancer, an illness
that, given the prevailing taboos of the era, she did not disclose
to her managers. The illness was first diagnosed in 1956, and Ms.
Chookasian was given six months to live. She underwent a mastectomy
that year and a second in 1961, after the cancer recurred.
As was widely reported, Ms. Chookasian, making her Met debut on March
9, 1962, sang so well that she received an immense ovation after her
aria "Voce di Donna."
Her last performance with the Met was on May 17, 1986, as Gertrude
in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette."
After retiring from the opera stage, Ms. Chookasian spent many years
as a faculty member at the Yale School of Music. She had previously
taught at Northwestern University.
Ms. Chookasian's husband, George Gavejian, whom she married in 1941,
died in 1987. She is survived by two sons, John and Paul; a daughter,
Valerie Klutch; 11 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
By all accounts, Ms. Chookasian was upstaged only once, in 1967,
while singing Madame Flora with the Cincinnati Opera. At the time,
the company performed at the Cincinnati Zoo, a setting fraught with
the potential for unintended consequences.
In one of the opera's dramatic moments, Madame Flora, descending into
madness, fears there is a ghost in her room. "Who's there?" she cries.
That night, as if on cue, a wandering peacock screamed back, "Meeee!"
At that point, Ms. Chookasian later said, she knew she had lost the
audience for good.