Rosalind Elias (March 13, 1930 – May 3, 2020) was an American mezzo-soprano who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera. She was best known for creating the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa in 1958.
In the realm of live broadcasting, Elias' performance as Bathsheba under the direction of Alfredo Antonini for CBS Television's premiere of Ezra Laderman's opera And David Wept, earned Ellias critical acclaim in 1971.
Elias made numerous recordings primarily for RCA Victor during the 1960s, including Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro under Erich Leinsdorf, Preziosilla in La forza del destino and Laura in La Gioconda, both opposite Zinka Milanov, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Leonard Warren, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly twice, first opposite Anna Moffo in 1957, and then opposite Leontyne Price in 1962, Azucena in Il trovatore opposite Leontyne Price, Richard Tucker, Giorgio Tozzi, as well as Maddalena in Rigoletto, Meg Page in Falstaff (both under Georg Solti in 1963) and Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. She was the mezzo/contralto soloist in concert works like Hector Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette and the Giuseppe Verdi Requiem. The recording of 'Figaro' under Leinsdorf won a Grammy for Best Classical Performance, Opera Cast or Choral, at the Second Annual Grammy Awards, November 29, 1959.
In 1984, Elias made her New York City Opera debut as Mrs. Lovett in a return engagement of Hal Prince’s original staging of Stephen Sondheim‘s .
In later years, Elias assumed the role of the Old Baroness in Vanessa, first performing the work at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and later at the Los Angeles Opera in 2004 and at the New York City Opera in 2007.
Still in lustrous voice, Elias played the role of "Heidi Schiller" in a new revival of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical Follies, which ran at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from May 7, 2011, to June 19, 2011.Gans, Andrew. "Broadway-Bound 'Follies' Plays Final Performance at Kennedy Center June 19" , Playbill.com, June 19, 2011 She made her Broadway theatre debut when the musical transferred to Broadway in a limited engagement from August 2011 through January 22, 2012.
She had her name and social security number tattooed on her abdomen in case of a disaster.
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