Creation of Roles
Lear created a number of roles during her career. In 1955, having just graduated from Juilliard, she created the role of the heroine Nina in Marc Blitzstein's Reuben, Reuben – a role that would prompt Leonard Bernstein to name his daughter Nina. In 1961, she created the title role of Giselher Klebe's Alkmene in Berlin. Two years later, she created another role as Jeanne in Werner Egk's Die Verlobung in San Domingo in the reopening of the Munich Nationaltheater. Her debut with the Metropolitan Opera came with the creation of the role of Lavinia Mannon in the world premiere of Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra in 1967.
Soon after this she experienced vocal problems, losing much of her upper range and clarity, which she blamed on singing so much modern music. This did not stop her performing modern roles, however. In 1974, she created the role of Irma Arkadina in Thomas Pasatieri's The Seagull at the Houston Grand Opera. Lear created the role of Magna in Robert Ward's Minutes to Midnight in 1982, followed by creating the role of Ranyevskaya in Rudolf Kelterborn's Kirschgarten in Zurich in 1984.
Read more about this topic: Evelyn Lear
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