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Marita Napier (née Jacobs; 16 February 1939 – 10 April 2004) was a South African operatic soprano, known internationally as a performer of music by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. She performed in 19 productions of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. In 1989, a recording of Wagner's Die Walküre with her in a Metropolitan Opera production was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Napier was considered one of the best Turandot, having performed the role for over 70 times including 1989 production by Franco Zeffirelli at the Met.
She was the first South African opera singer to perform lead roles in the "Grand Slam" of opera houses – the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, La Scala in Milan, Royal Opera House in London and Vienna State Opera.
Napier attended DF Malan High School (then Crosby High School) in the Johannesburg suburb of Crosby. After school she joined the Neerlandia Choir and began performing as a soloist. She continued her singing lessons, first with Margaret Roux and later with Stella Cavalli. Napier made her singing debut in 1963 at the Little Theatre in Pretoria as Romilda in Handel's Serse.
Being impressed by a singer's performance at a concert, Napier inquired who her teacher was. It turned out to be Theo Lindenbaum from Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia. Napier sent him an audition tape and he immediately accepted her as a student. She saved up for two years while working in an office to be able to go to Germany, which she did in 1965 with a donation from the Ernest Oppenheimer Trust Fund.
Napier's first European breakthrough was when she sang the soprano part in Orff's Carmina Burana in Dijon, France. At a 1966 festival for young singers, she performed in Verdi's Requiem. She sang, alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Bielefeld, which led to auditions at three opera houses. She passed all three and chose Bielefeld Opera to be closer to her music teacher. There she made her stage debut as Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser. Verdi roles included Abigaile in Nabucco, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She also appeared as Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre.
From 1969 to 1973, Napier was a member of the Aalto Theatre in Essen, in 1973/74 at the Staatsoper Hannover. From 1973, she belonged to the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She had guest contracts with the Hamburg State Opera from 1973, and with the Berlin State Opera from 1975. She performed at the Bayreuth Festival first in the choir, then in 1973 as Helmwige in Die Walküre and Third Norne in Götterdämmerung. In 1974, she was Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and in 1975 also Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
In 1974 Napier made her debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre at La Scala with Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. In October 1974 she made her Covent Garden debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre and subsequently returned there to sing as Leonore in Fidelio and Ariadne in Strauß' Ariadne auf Naxos She made her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Leonore in Il Trovatore in 1975 and returned for performances of Ariadne auf Naxos, Elsa in Lohengrin, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Fidelio, Chrysothemis in Elektra, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and Der Fliegende Holländer
Napier made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 22 September 1986 as Helmwige in Die Walküre. A 1989 Napier recording at the house received the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
Napier moved permanently to Cape Town in 1994. She participated actively in local productions and as a mentor. In 1993 she headed an Opera Studio for young singers at PACT and in 1994 was a member of the panel of adjudicators at the Transnet/Unisa International Singing Competition in Pretoria. In 1997 she performed in the world premiere of Roelof Temmingh's Sacred Bones at the Nico Theatre (now Artscape Theatre Centre).
In a tribute on 6 May 2004, Thys Odendaal wrote in Beeld: "On the way to Cape Town for the debut in her own country... 'Riets', as Ma Skattie called her, spoke to the Johannesburg media, fresh from her first international triumph in Bayreuth, as Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre. As prima donna, she met the press in the VIP lounge in front of flashing cameras and sharp TV lights. She asked for a cigarette, 'preferably Camel', and then a glass of 'gin & tonic'... beautifully dressed in a wide-brimmed hat and leopard-collared tabard. Not very talkative. Wide-eyed, and the smile wide. Smoking and an opera voice do not go together, someone remarked uncertainly. Without hesitation, the dry answer comes: 'Smoking is bad for the voice, but singing is even worse.'"
Napier died in Cape Town in 2004 from cancer.
In her career, Napier shared the stage with world-famous singers such as Birgit Nilsson, Christa Ludwig, Plácido Domingo and Leonie Rysanek. She also worked with the most famous conductors such as James Levine, Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez, Karl Böhm, Zubin Mehta and Wolfgang Sawallisch. She sang at major opera festivals in Europe – including Bayreuth, Aix-en-Provence, Verona, Munich, Vienna Festival and Florence, as well as in leading opera houses including Munich, La Scala, Paris Opera, Liceu, Buenos Aires.
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