Vaness, Carol (Theresa)

Vaness, Carol (Theresa), talented American soprano; b. San Diego, July 27, 1952. She grew up in Pomona, where she took piano lessons; while attending a parochial girls’ school, she sang in its choir, then studied English and piano at Calif. State Polytechnic Coll. before concentrating on music at Calif. State Univ. in Northridge (M.A., 1976), where her vocal instructor was David Scott. After serving an apprenticeship at the San Francisco Opera, she made her N.Y.C. Opera debut as Vitellia in La clemenza di Titoon Oct. 25, 1979, and continued to appear there until 1983, when she scored a major success as Handel’s Alcina. On Jan. 9, 1981, she made her European debut as Vitellia in Bordeaux. She made her first appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1982 as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni,a role she subsequently sang to much acclaim throughout Europe. In 1982 she also made her debut at London’s Covent Garden as Mimi. On Feb. 14, 1984, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo,and continued to sing there in later seasons; also appeared with other U.S. opera houses and toured as a concert artist. In 1988 she made her first appearance at the Salzburg Festival as Vitellia. In 1990 she sang Mozart’s Elettra at Milan’s La Scala. On Dec. 19,1991, she made her N.Y. Phil. debut singing excerpts from Strauss’s Daphneunder Leinsdorf’s direction. In 1992 she appeared as Rossini’s Mathilde in San Francisco. In 1994 she appeared as Desdemona at the Metropolitan Opera, where she returned as Fiordiligi in 1996. She also sang Norma at the Houston Grand Opera in the latter year. In 1997 she portrayed Tosca at the San Francisco Opera. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Rosalinde in 1999. Her other roles include Dalila in Handel’s Samson,Elettra in Idomeneo,the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro,Rosina, Violetta, Gilda, Nedda, and Mimi.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire