Betty Allen

Betty Allen (March 17, 1927 – June 22, 2009) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano born Elizabeth Louise Allen in Campbell, Ohio, near Youngstown. Her active international singing career spanned the 1950s through the 1970s, during which she became part of the first generation of Black opera singers to achieve wide recognition and was regarded as a key figure in breaking down racial barriers in the opera world. In the latter portion of her career, her voice took on a contralto-like darkening, audible on her recording of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. After her performing career concluded, she went on to work as a voice teacher and arts administrator.

Allen's early life was marked by hardship. Her father, a college-educated math teacher, was barred by racial prejudice from employment in the public school system during the 1930s and instead worked in a steel mill. Her mother, who supplemented the family's income by washing laundry for others, died of cancer when Allen was twelve. Her father subsequently fell into depression and alcoholism, and Allen left home as a young teenager, spending the remainder of her youth in foster homes.

She entered Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, in 1943, majoring in languages. There, tenor Theodor Heimann encouraged her to pursue singing and drew her into the school's choir, whose members included a young Leontyne Price; the two became friends during that period. Allen later enrolled at the Hartford School of Music in Connecticut in 1947 on a scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in vocal performance. She subsequently moved to New York City and continued her studies under Sarah Peck More, Paul Ulanowsky, and Zinka Milanov.

Her first major performance came in 1951 at the Tanglewood Music Festival's Berkshire Music Center, where Leonard Bernstein selected her as the mezzo-soprano soloist for a presentation of his Jeremiah Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The following year she made her Broadway debut, appearing as St. Theresa II in Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts at the August Wilson Theatre in a production mounted by the American National Theater and Academy. Also in 1952, she won the Marian Anderson Award following a singing competition in Philadelphia.

Allen's Broadway career extended from 1952 to 1975 and included a starring role in Treemonisha in addition to her appearance in Four Saints in Three Acts. Her work in Four Saints in Three Acts carried beyond the stage: twenty-nine years after her Broadway debut in the opera, she recorded the role of Commère for the work's first complete recording. On May 5, 1960, she began a long partnership with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in a concert performance of the same opera, and she remained a regular guest artist with the orchestra through 1975, performing works by Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Haydn, Liszt, Mahler, Schubert, Stravinsky, and others. She returned for one additional performance with the orchestra in 1986 after an eleven-year absence.

Her association with Bernstein was among the most significant of her career. Bernstein greatly admired her artistry and notably chose her as the featured soloist for his final performances as music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1973. She was also known for her collaborations with other American composers, including Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Ned Rorem, and Virgil Thomson.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Allen accumulated a wide range of operatic and concert credits. On June 6, 1954, she participated in the world premiere of Sam Raphling's Tin Pan Alley on a WNYC radio broadcast. On July 1, 1954, she sang Prince Orlofsky in a concert version of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus at the Lewisohn Stadium under conductor Tibor Kozma, and on October 28, 1954, she made her New York City Opera debut as Queenie in Show Boat. In January 1957 her portrayal of the title role in Arthur Honegger's Judith at Town Hall drew significant critical attention, with critic Edward Downes praising the richness, placement, and dramatic quality of her voice. In December 1958 she sang the world premiere of Julia Perry's Stabat Mater. Her concert work with the American Opera Society during the early 1960s included Teresa in La sonnambula alongside Joan Sutherland, Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Armando di Gondì in Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, Juno in Handel's Semele, Zaida in Rossini's Il turco in Italia, and Clitemnestre in Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide with Christa Ludwig in the title role.