Eleanor Steber
Eleanor Steber was born on July 17, 1914. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Eleanor Steber
Eleanor Steber (July 17, 1914 – October 3, 1990) was an American soprano and voice teacher. She was particularly celebrated for her performances in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss. A native of West Virginia, she was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where she began her performance career in the 1930s. She made her opera debut in 1936 at the Boston Opera House as Senta in Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. In 1940 Steber won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air competition which garnered her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera ("the Met"). She was a leading soprano at the Met for 22 continuous years during which time she gave more than 400 performances in more than 30 roles. Disagreements between Steber and the Met's director Rudolph Bing led up to his decision not to renew Steber's contract after a December 1962 performance as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She later returned to the Met in 1966 for a final opera appearance as Minnie in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West. Steber's career was mainly based in the United States, and she only made a relatively small number of appearances abroad. These included performances at the Bayreuth Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Salzburg Festival. She was a charter member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago when it was founded in 1954. She performed the title role in Puccini's Tosca during the company's first season, and performed regularly with the company during the 1950s. She also worked as a guest artist with other American opera companies into the 1970s; including performances with the San Francisco Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. She was a prolific recording artist; performing on more than 100 albums. Steber was the head of the voice department at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1963 to 1972, and later taught voice on the faculties of the Juilliard School and Brooklyn College.