I have known Phyllis since the 1950's. She was one of the stars at New York City Opera, performing in The New York City Center on 55th Street in those days. I still have a vivid picture of her sitting on the roof of the cabin in the set of Carlisle Floyd's opera Susannah, singing 'Ain't it a pretty night?', her long dark hair flowing in the stage moon light and her silver voice reaching out to her rapt audience. Magic!
I saw her perform many times during our lives. When she sang the part of Kate in Vittorio Gianinni's opera The Taming of the Shrew, I saw every performance of it that season. I knew Vittorio and my very good friend, Dorothy Fee, was the librettist for the work. I was her escort to all the performances. A rare experience.
Dorothy told me that when she and Vittorio were putting the words to the music, he would phone her and say, 'Dottie! I need more words. I'm in the middle of the aria and have run out of text!' Dorothy told me that she did not want to try to compete with the Bard of Avon poetically, so she would borrow his own words from Romeo and Juliet or the Sonnets. It was all Shakespeare!
I remember hearing Phyllis sing Pierrot Lunaire in Memorial Hall at Harvard when I was teaching there. My seat was in the front row, directly in front of her. She sang this difficult work effortlessly, looking serene and lovely. She was wearing a gorgeous gown and open-toed shoes and I could see her toe keeping very accurate time throughout. I thought that was wonderful and fun and told her about it later in our friendship.
I heard her at the Met, in recital; she even occasionally sang in oratorio at the Church of The Ascension on Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street where my organ teacher, the great Vernon de Tar, was the chorus master.
As we both grew older I would sometimes go visit her at her home in Great Barrington and we would have a great afternoon talking about singers, technique, music, life. These times were very enjoyable for me and I think she liked them as well.
Phyllis and I both studied with the great Olga Averino, whom I still quote in nearly every voice lesson I teach. Phyllis worked with her at Wellesley in her student days and I worked with her later when I went to Harvard to teach. We both adored her!
Once, when one of my students was planning to sing an audition with 'Ain't it a Pretty Night?', I asked Phyllis if she would hear her and make suggestions as to presentation.
Kate sang for Phyllis and Phyllis told her, 'When you sing this aria you must look far into space and sing into infinity.'
I am positive that is what Phyllis is doing right now!
