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Beverly Wolff (November 6, 1928 – August 14, 2005) was an American mezzo-soprano who had an active career in concerts and from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. She performed a broad repertoire which encompassed operatic and concert works in many languages and from a variety of musical periods. She was a champion of new works, notably premiering compositions by Leonard Bernstein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Douglas Moore, and Ned Rorem among other American composers. She also performed in a number of rarely heard baroque operas by George Frideric Handel with the New York City Opera (NYCO), the Handel Society of New York, and at the Kennedy Center Handel Festivals.
Wolff made only a few appearances on the international stage during her career, choosing instead to work with important opera companies and orchestras in the United States. She was particularly active with the NYCO with whom she performed frequently from 1958 to 1971. Opera News stated, "Wolff was one of a golden generation of American singers who dominated the NYCO roster during the general directorship of Julius Rudel. Her combination of stylish, intelligent singing and "big brass sound," as she termed it, was a key element in some of the company's most celebrated productions."
In 1952, at the age of 23, Wolff received a personal phone call from Leonard Bernstein, where she was invited to do the world premiere of a new opera of his at Tanglewood. After these performances, she made her professional opera debut portraying Dinah in a nationally televised broadcast of Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti for the NBC Opera Theatre (NBCOT). She performed only one more time with the NBCOT during her career: the role of The executive director in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Labyrinth in March 1963. She performed two roles with Boris Goldovsky's New England Opera Theater in 1953: Idamante in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Idomeneo and Mistress Quickly in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff."Verdi Work Presented By Goldovsky Company", The Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 1953 She then put her opera career on hold in order to start a family. She did, however, perform occasionally in concerts during the mid-1950s, making appearances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Even after returning to opera in 1968, Wolff maintained a measured pace for her professional and personal life; in general, for every two weeks of work, she would spend three weeks at home. In a 1972 Opera News interview, Wolff stated, "You can't leave a list of performances to posterity. The only future is your children, and rearing them is not a part-time job." Wolff became a teacher in her home in Lakeland, Florida, after which she was invited to teach at the Academy of Vocal Arts. She went on to teach at Florida Southern College, where she served as provost of the university for a term.
In March 1972 Wolff sang the title role in the United States premiere of Handel's Rinaldo in a concert version with the Handel Society of New York (HSNY) at Carnegie Hall, a role which she also recorded. She later performed the role of Daniel in Handel's Belshazzar with the HSNY in 1973, and sang the role of Ruggiero with the HSNY the New York premiere of Handel's Alcina on March 25, 1974, with Cristina Deutekom in the title role and Karan Armstrong as Morgana. In November 1972 she performed the role of Clarice in Rossini's La pietra del paragone in a concert version at Alice Tully Hall. On November 25, 1973, she created the title role in the world premiere of Ned Rorem's one-act opera Bertha at Alice Tully Hall.
Wolff was also active as a concert soloist and recitalist in New York City. In December 1961 she performed to an audience of more than 10,000 people at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Festival Orchestra of New York under conductor Thomas Dunn. She sang several more times with the Festival Orchestra, including in performances of Henry Purcell's The Fairy-Queen and Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella. She made a total of 25 appearances with the New York Philharmonic (NYP) from 1965 to 1978, making her debut with the orchestra on January 14, 1975, as a soloist in Gioachino Rossini's Stabat Mater. Other works she sang with the NYP included Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (1965), Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah (1966), Handel's Messiah (1966), Hector Berlioz's La damnation de Faust (1967, Marguerite), Berlioz's La mort de Cléopâtre (1968), and Anton Bruckner's Te Deum (1978) among others. In 1968 she was a soloist in Verdi's Requiem with conductor Siegfried Landau and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. In 1975 she performed with The Little Orchestra Society as a soloist in Edward Elgar The Dream of Gerontius with conductor Thomas Scherman. In December 1977 she made her New York City recital debut at Town Hall.
Wolff retired from performance in the early 1980s. One of her last performances was as a soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in May 1982 at Avery Fisher Hall with conductor Rohan Joseph de Saram, the Oratorio Society of New York, and the American Philharmonic Orchestra.
Wolff was also active as a recitalist and concert soloist, appearing in numerous cities around the United States. In August 1961 she performed for President John F. Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and 345 physically handicapped children in a concert held on the south lawn of the White House. In 1965 she was a soloist in two cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach with conductor Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) at the Tanglewood Music Festival. She performed with the BSO several more times, including performing alongside Beverly Sills and Plácido Domingo as soloists in Joseph Haydn's The Creation in 1967. She performed in two works by Mahler with conductor William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony: Songs of a Wayfarer in 1966 and the Resurrection Symphony in 1967. In 1975 she was a soloist in Verdi's Requiem in a performance given for Pope Paul VI at the Holy See. In 1977 she sang the part of the Wood Dove in Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of James Levine. In 1980 she was a soloist in Alexander Scriabin's Symphony No. 1 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Muti.
Wolff also sang abroad in Europe and in Mexico. In Italy she performed at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, and La Fenice in Venice. She sang a riveting Adalgisa at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City for which the Mexican government issued her a medal. Some of the other roles she sang internationally were Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Dalila in Samson et Dalila, and the title role in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.
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