Evelyn Lear

While she excelled in many roles in the lyric and later in the spinto repertoire, Evelyn Lear was perhaps best-known for her appearances in 20th century music, not only performing frequently in them, but creating roles in works by Robert Ward, Martin Levy, Rudolf Kelterborn, and Giselher Klebe, to name just a few. An unusually versatile performer, she sang all three female leads in Der Rosenkavalier, both Micaëla and the title role in Carmen, and both Zerbinetta and the Composer in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. While her voice itself was not an extraordinary one, she bro...