Jean Kraft

Jean Kraft (January 9, 1940) is an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She began her career singing with the New York City Opera (NYCO) during the early 1960s, after which she embarked on a long and fruitful partnership with The Santa Fe Opera which lasted from 1965 through 1987. In 1970 she joined the roster of singers at the Metropolitan Opera where she remained a fixture until 1989. She has also performed as a guest artist with many other opera companies throughout the United States during her career. In 2005 Opera News stated that Kraft was "a gifted mezzo and observant, imaginative actress who lent distinction to a wide range of character roles. By the end of her Met tenure, she had sung nearly 800 performances and become a solid audience favorite."

Born in Menasha, Wisconsin, Kraft began her career working as pianist as a teenager and was also a proficient clarinet and trumpet player. After working as a pianist for four years she decided to reorient her path towards a singing career, at this point more interested in the concert repertoire than in opera. She entered the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied voice under Giannini Gregory. She later continued with further studies under Theodore Harrison in Chicago, William Ernest Vedal in Munich, and Povla Frijsh in New York City.

While still a student, Kraft sang the role of Laura Gates in the world premiere of Mark Bucci's Tale for a Deaf Ear at the 1957 Tanglewood Music Festival in a student production directed by Boris Goldovsky and conducted by James Billings. She made her professional opera debut on February 18, 1960 as the Mother in Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author at the NYCO with Beverly Sills as The Coloratura. She appeared with the NYCO in several more productions during the 1960s including, Miss Jessel in Britten's The Turn of the Screw (1962), the Forewoman in Charpentier's Louise (1962), Marcellina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (1962), Maud Lowder in Moore's The Wings of the Dove (1962), Death in Stravinsky's The Nightingale (1963), Flora in Verdi's La traviata (1963), Sarah Chicken in Robert Ward's The Lady from Colorado (1964), and Penelope in Menotti's Help, Help, the Globolinks! (1969) among others. She had sung the role of Penelope the previous year for the works world premiere at the SFO.

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