Martha Lipton

Martha Lipton (April 6, 1913 – November 28, 2006) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and music educator who is best known for her career performing at the Metropolitan Opera ("The Met") from 1944 to 1961. Martha Lipton was born in New York City on April 6, 1913. Her first voice lessons were taught to her by her mother.

Lipton trained further in New York under Anna E. Ziegler at the School of Musicianship for Singers, Inc in the early 1930s. On December 15, 1933, she made her debut at Carnegie Hall as a member of the New York Light Opera Guild, performing as a soloist in a concert of operetta music by Reginald De Koven. After this she studied privately in New York in the studio of Melanie Guttman-Rice in 1936–1937. In 1936 she was engaged as a resident soloist at both Riverside Church and Temple Emanu-El of New York, and in 1937 she made her radio debut on NBC Radio's "Magic Keys" program after being selected to perform by Walter Damrosch.

Lipton won a scholarship to the graduate school of the Juilliard School in November 1937. There she studied singing with tenor Paul Reimers. In early January 1939 she won the singing competition of the MacDowell Club of New York. This led to her New York City recital debut at the concert hall of the MacDowell Club on January 26, 1939. In April 1939 she performed the role of the Sorceress in Juilliard's production of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Margaret Harshaw as Dido and Albert Stoessel as the music director. After graduating from Juilliard, she continued to study singing in New York with Ettore Verna.

In May 1939 Lipton won first prize in the national level of the singing competition of the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC). In addition to the cash prize, The NFMC competition win significantly raised her profile as a singer, and helped her earn professional contracts nationally at the beginning of her career.

Early career While studying at Juilliard, Lipton began her opera career at Radio City Music Hall as a contract member of that theatre's resident opera company. She made several appearances in operas with conductor Ernö Rapée and the symphony orchestra of Radio City Music Hall (RCMH) which were recorded for live broadcast on the NBC Blue Network radio program "Radio City Music Hall of the Air"; These included performing the roles of Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor (November 6, 1938), Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana (November 13, 1938), and Maddalena in Rigoletto (November 20, 1938). On October 8, 1939, she performed the role of Queen Isabella in the world premiere of Eugene Zador's opera Christopher Columbus at the Center Theatre which was presented in a concert version by the RCMH Opera Company and also broadcast on the "Radio City Music Hall of the Air".

In December 1939 Lipton was a guest soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra in which she sang Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Allelujah" from his Exsultate, jubilate and the arias "Che farò senza Euridice" from Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and "Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse" from Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah. In February 1940 she appeared at the 92nd Street Y as a soloist in Sergei Rachmaninoff's Springtide and Saint-Saëns's Le Déluge with the Jewish Choral Society of New York and conductor Abraham Binder, and that same month performed a series of vocal duets by Johannes Brahms at The Town Hall with soprano Mabel Berryman. In April 1940 she was a soloist in Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem with soprano Zinka Milanov, conductor Fritz Reiner, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. This was soon followed by engagements as a soloist in two different concerts with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

In March 1941 Lipton gave a recital at The Town Hall. In November 1942 she returned to that theatre to perform in a concert of vocal quartets by Joseph Haydn with her fellow soloists including soprano Margaret Daum, tenor Earl Rogers, and bass Edward Constantin. She joined the roster of principal arts of the New Opera Company (NOC) in Manhattan, making her debut with the company on October 18, 1941, as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte at Broadway's 44th Street Theatre. Later that season she performed two more roles at the same theatre with the NOC; On May 3, 1942, she performed in concert with soprano Grace Moore and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on the campus of Purdue University with that school's choir. Later that year she performed in concerts at military bases in New York state to entertain troops serving during World War II, and continued to perform in concerts organized by the United Service Organizations in 1943.

In 1943 Lipton was made a national honorary member of the professional music fraternity Delta Omicron, and sang in concert with the Memphis Symphony. In May 1943 performed the role of Lola in Cavalleria rusticana at the Center Theatre in Manhattan with the San Carlo Opera Company. In July 1943 she performed in a series of concerts at Meridian Hill Park in Washington D.C. with baritone Conrad Thibault. On August 31, 1943, she gave a joint recital with Alexander Kipnis in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in October 1943 she gave a recital at Westminster College in Pennsylvania. The following November she gave a recital in Dallas.

Lipton appeared in the very first season of the New York City Opera as Nancy in Friedrich von Flotow's Martha; She continued to appear with the company in that role into early March 1944. On March 26, 1944, she appeared with the Handel and Haydn Society and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Julius Theodorowicz at Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory as a soloist in Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion. In May 1934 she returned to The Town Hall as a soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah with John Gurney in the title role. She gave recitals at Columbia University (March 1934) and the University of Toronto (October 1944, with John Brownlee).

Metropolitan Opera Lipton made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera ("The Met") on November 28, 1944, as Siebel in Charles Gounod's Faust with Ezio Pinza as Méphistophélès, Licia Albanese as Margherite, and Raoul Jobin in the title role. It was also the first performance given during the Met's 1944–1945 season. By the time she ended her singing career at the Met in 1961 she had performed a total of 401 times with the company across seventeen seasons

Lipton's most frequent assignments at the Met were as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier and Emilia in Otello. both Floßhilde and Fricka in Das Rheingold, a Genii in The Magic Flute, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, La Cieca in La Gioconda, Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Her final appearance at the Met was as the Innkeeper in Boris Godunov on January 7, 1961, with George London in the title role.

In addition to her work on the stage of the Met, Lipton also made radio appearances and sang in concerts associated with the Met in other locations. On December 26, 1944, she sang a program of music with Met tenor Richard Manning on the radio program "Metropolitan Opera, USA" on WQXR; a radio program organized by the Metropolitan Opera Guild which featured American singers under contract with the Met. In April 1945 she performed at a concert organized by the Met at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio in which she performed works form The Marriage of Figaro with Frances Greer and Hugh Thompson, and sang the duet "L'amo come il fulgor del creato" from La Gioconda with Frances Greer. The Cleveland Orchestra was the ensemble for that concert with Wilfrid Pelletier leading the musical forces before an audience of 9,000 people.

On February 16, 1946, Lipton performed on the radio program "Opera News of the Air" with fellow Met singer Lucrezia Bori and Met conductor Boris Goldovsky. In May 1946 she toured with the Met to the Kiel Opera House in St. Louise where she starred in a production of Rigoletto with Patrice Munsel and Ezio Pinza.

When the final concert was given at The Old Met on April 16, 1966, Lipton was in attendance as an official guest of honor. In the summer of 1946 she was committed to the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro where she starred as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier with Mimi Benzell as Sophie, and as Preziosilla in La forza del destino with Zinka Milanov as Leonora, Kurt Baum as Don Alvaro, Glno Bech as Don Carlo, Giacomo Vaghi as the Marchese di Calatrava, and Tino Cremagnani conducting. This was immediately followed by a concert tour of South America; She later returned to the Theatro Municipal in 1950. She returned to that festival again in 1952 and 1953. In February 1945 she was one of several featured singers in a concert organized by William Colston Leigh Sr. at Carnegie Hall that was hosted by Lawrence Tibbett. In the summer of 1945 she performed in concert with conductor Rudolph Ringwall and the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in a program that included duets with tenor Robert Marshall.

In January 1946 Lipton sang at Times Hall in New York City in a concert of Jewish religious music in the Hebrew language under conductor Max Helfman that was sponsored by the Hebrew Arts Committee. In April 1946 she gave a recital at Assumption College in Ontario. In May 1946 she was a soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with soprano Rosa Canario, tenor William Hain, bass Nicola Moscona, conductor Fritz Reiner, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In December 1946, Lipton was a guest soloist in Wayne State University's performance of George Frideric Handel's Messiah with her fellow soloists including Met singers Richard Bonelli and Donald Dame.

On February 2, 1947, Lipton performed Modest Mussorgsky's song cycle The Nursery in a concert at The Town Hall.

On October 27, 1949, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic (NYP) at Carnegie Hall, performing Arnold Schoenberg's "Song of the Wood Dove" ("Lied der Waltaube") from Gurre-Lieder under conductor Leopold Stokowski. She appeared with the NYP in a total of 27 concerts during her career, In 1957 she performed Brahm's Alto Rhapsody with the NYP under Albert Fracht.

In 1951 Lipton was the soloist in Charles Martin Loeffler's Canticle of the Sun in a concert conducted by Richard Korn at the City College of New York. In 1952 she gave another recital at The Town Hall, and that same year performed in the United States premiere of Hugo Wolf's opera Der Corregidor which was given in a concert version at Carnegie Hall. a role she repeated that same year at the New York City Opera (NYCO).

Lipton was active during the 1950s as a recording artist for Columbia Records.

Lipton died in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 28, 2006. She was 93. (re-released by Columbia Records in 1949); Act III of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, New York Philharmonic, Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, conductor Artur Rodziński; Lipton sings the role of Grimgerde with Helen Traubel as Brünnhilde and Herbert Janssen as Wotan with Lipton as Prince Orlofsky, Lily Pons as Adele, Ljuba Welitsch as Rosalinda, Richard Tucker as Alfred, Charles Kullman as Einstein, and John Brownlee as Dr. Falke 1953, Columbia Records; Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Westminster Choir, New York Philharmonic, conductor Bruno Walter; with soloists Martha Lipton, Frances Yeend, David Lloyd], and Mack Harrell 1957, Columbia Records; Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier with Lipton as the Countess di Coigny, Richard Tucker in the title role, Mary Curtis-Verna as Maddalena di Coigny, Mario Sereni as Carlo Gérard, Rosalind Elias as Bersi, George Cehanovsky as Pietro Fléville, Gabor Carelli as The Abbé, and Alessio De Paolis as The Spy. 1959, Columbia Records; George Frideric Handel's Messiah, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Philadelphia Orchestra, conductor Eugene Ormandy; with soloists Martha Lipton, Eileen Farrell, Davis Cunningham, and William Warfield 1965, Columbia Records (recorded April 3, 1961); Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3, Women's Chorus of The Schola Cantorum, Boys' Choir of The Church of The Transfiguration, New York Philharmonic, conductor Leonard Bernstein; Martha Lipton as soloist