Klara Barlow

Klara Barlow (July 28, 1928 in New York City, New York – January 20, 2008 in New York City, New York) was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. A dramatic soprano, Barlow particularly excelled in portraying Strauss and Wagnerian heroines. The 5-foot-11-inch-tall "platinum-blonde beauty" was ideal for playing the "Wagnerian blondes": roles like Elsa, Eva, Sieglinde, and Elisabeth. Although she worked most often in the German repertoire, Barlow also sang roles from the Italian, French, and Czech repertories. While her performance credits included leading roles at most of the world's major opera houses, she never achieved a high level of international fame. She did not participate in any commercial audio recordings, although her voice is preserved on a few television and radio broadcasts made in Germany, Canada, and the United States.

Early life and career Born Alma Claire Williams, Barlow worked as a secretary, salesperson, receptionist and model before pursuing an opera career. She took the stage name "Klara Barlow" from a suggestion by a numerologist who told her that it would suit her better professionally. She studied voice under Cecile Jacobson in New York City and made her professional recital debut as a coloratura soprano at Carnegie Hall in 1954. Although critics were enthusiastic, she was unable to attract the interest of major opera companies in the United States. She did however, sing with Giuseppina La Puma's highly respected amateur company, The Mascagni Opera.

By 1961, twice divorced and with a nine-year-old daughter to support, she decided to try her luck in Europe. She moved to Switzerland to pursue further studies in opera and it was there that she was directed into the dramatic repertory. She finally made her professional opera debut as Venus in Richard Wagner' Tannhäuser at the Stadttheater Bern in 1962. She joined the roster of principal sopranos at the Stadttheater Oberhausen in 1963 where she sang for two seasons. In 1965 she joined the Kiel Opera House where she sang regularly for one year.

First major successes Barlow's first major success came in 1966 when she made her debut at the Komische Oper Berlin as Donna Anna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni. The production was directed by Walter Felsenstein and was broadcast live on German television. That performance was recently released on DVD in January 2009 in a boxed collection with several other operas directed by Felsenstein at the Komische Oper between 1956 and 1976. She sang several more leading roles with the company during the 1966–1967 season to great success. Barlow next worked as a principal soprano at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden from 1967 to 1969 and then at the Opernhaus Zürich from 1969 to 1970. Her major successes at these houses were portraying heroines from operas by Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Giuseppe Verdi.

In 1967 Barlow sang her first Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Kiel, a performance which didn't put her on the map but it did lead to an engagement to sing the part at the 1968 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy opposite Claude Heater as Tristan. The Spoletto production was directed and conducted by composer Gian Carlo Menotti and was highly received. Time stated that, "To New York audiences who have seen almost nothing for 15 years except Birgit Nilsson's cool, ruminative portrayal, Barlow's sexy Isolde came as a pleasant shock."

Later life and career During the 1970s and 1980s Barlow maintained an active career working as a freelance artist with companies throughout the world. She sang Freia in Das Rheingold and Sieglinde in Die Walküre for Seattle Opera's productions of Wagner's Ring Cycle from 1970 to 1972. She returned to Seattle in 1976 to portray Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung, a role she also sang with the Dallas Opera in 1981. That same year she sang Donna Anna to Jerome Hines's Don Giovanni for her debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company. In 1973 she made an unexpected debut at the Bavarian State Opera as Elektra, getting a call to fill in for a sick artist just 17 hours before the curtain went up.