Lois Hunt

Lois Hunt (born Lois Harriet Marcus, November 26, 1924 – July 26, 2009) was an American lyric soprano who had spent some of her earlier career performing at New York City's Metropolitan Opera and later spent four decades performing and recording classical music and musical theater numbers nationwide together with baritone Earl Wrightson.

Early life and training She was born in York, Pennsylvania, as Lois Harriet Marcus. She began singing while in elementary school and began a professional career after working with opera coaches in Philadelphia. She had been singing professionally for three years when a Metropolitan Opera assistant manager who had seen her sing in a performance in Colorado of Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, convinced her to head to New York City. There she earned a contract with the Met after her participation in the opera company's 1949 Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air competition.

Performing at the Met and on the road While with the Met, Hunt sang such roles as Adele in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II, Papagena in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute, as well as Musetta in La bohème and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, both written by Giacomo Puccini. She sang the role of Adele in a 1953 presentation of a 90-minute version of Die Fledermaus on television, the first created by the Met for the new medium. She died at age 84 on July 26, 2009, in Manhattan due to complications of cardiac surgery. She was survived by a son. Her marriage to Morton M. Hunt had ended in divorce, while her relationship with Wrightson ended with his death in 1993.