Quivar, Florence
Quivar, Florence
Quivar, Florence , American-American mezzo-soprano; b. Philadelphia, March 3, 1944. She studied at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, the Salzburg Mozarteum, and with Luigi Ricci in Rome. She was a member of the Juilliard Opera Theater in N.Y.; subsequently launched a successful concert career, appearing as soloist with the N.Y. Phil., the Cleveland Orch., the Philadelphia Orch., the Chicago Sym. Orch., and the Boston Sym. Orch. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Marina in Bon’s Godunov on Oct. 10, 1977; then sang there regularly, appearing in such roles as Jocasta in Oedipus Rex, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, Fides in Le Prophète, Eboli in Don Carlos, Marfa in Khovanshchina, and Serena in Porgy and Bess. In 1983 she made her first appearance at the Salzburg Festival as a soloist in Mahler’s 3rd Sym. with Mehta and the Israel Phil. She made her first operatic appearance there in 1989 as Ulrike. In 1991 she was a soloist in the Gurrelieder at the Promenade Concerts in London. She appeared at the Metropolitan Opera Gala in 1996.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire