Eunice Alberts

Eunice Alberts (1927–2012) was an American contralto born in Boston, Massachusetts, whose performing career spanned from the mid-1940s through the late 1980s and encompassed concert work, opera, and Broadway.

Alberts received her early education at the Girls' Latin School in Boston, completing her diploma there in 1940. She subsequently trained in voice with Cleora Wood and Rosalie Miller at the Longy School of Music, where she earned a certificate in vocal performance. Additional study at the Tanglewood Music Center brought her to the attention of conductor Serge Koussevitzky. Decades later, Alberts returned to formal education, enrolling at the New England Conservatory and receiving a bachelor's degree in 1967.

Her performing career began at the Tanglewood Music Festival in August 1946, when, at nineteen, she appeared as the contralto soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She then joined a madrigal ensemble directed by Nadia Boulanger, touring North America and Europe with the group for two years. She continued to appear at Tanglewood with the BSO into the early 1950s, serving as soloist in Bach's Mass in B Minor in 1950 and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in 1951. In 1948, during this early period of her career, Alberts appeared on Broadway in The Rape of Lucretia.

Relocating to New York City in 1950, Alberts studied with impresario Boris Goldovsky and made her first New York concert appearance on April 30, 1950, singing the contralto solos in Mendelssohn's Elijah with the John Harms Chorus at Town Hall. On June 4, 1951, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium as the contralto soloist in Verdi's Requiem under Dimitri Mitropoulos. That performance drew the interest of Laszlo Halasz, director of the New York City Opera, who offered her a place on the company's roster. Alberts accepted, and on October 4, 1951, she made her professional opera debut as the Elderly Woman in the world premiere of David Tamkin's The Dybbuk at New York City Center. During the same NYCO season she sang Maddalena in Rigoletto and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.

Throughout the 1950s Alberts performed widely across the United States. In 1953 she appeared as a soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Eugene Ormandy, and also sang in Bach works at the Bethlehem Bach Festival with the same orchestra. In 1955 she sang Bach's St. Matthew Passion and the world premiere of Howard Hanson's Sinfonia Sacra with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein at United Nations General Assembly Hall alongside soprano Adele Addison. That same year she joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she sang for two seasons. Her Chicago debut came on November 11, 1955, as Enrichetta opposite Maria Callas's Elvira in Bellini's I puritani. Additional roles during the 1955–1956 Chicago season included Inez to Callas's Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, Suzuki to Callas's Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Marthe in Gounod's Faust with Jussi Björling in the title role, Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana with Giuseppe di Stefano and Carlo Bergonzi alternating as Turiddu, and the Old Woman in Montemezzi's L'amore dei tre re with Dorothy Kirsten and Robert Weede. In the 1956–1957 Chicago season she portrayed Wowkle in La fanciulla del West with Eleanor Steber as Minnie, Madelon in Giordano's Andrea Chénier with Mario Del Monaco in the title role, the Page in Salome with Inge Borkh, and Grimgerde in Wagner's Die Walküre with Ludwig Suthaus as Siegmund.

Following her Chicago seasons, Alberts sang leading roles with the Kansas City Opera, the New Orleans Opera, the Cincinnati Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. In 1956 she performed in Verdi's Requiem with the Connecticut Orchestra at the Stratford Festival. In 1960 she portrayed Emilia in Verdi's Otello with the Opera Society of Washington and gave her New York City recital debut at Town Hall. She returned to the NYCO in 1961 to sing Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mrs. Cripps in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Rebecca Nurse in the world premiere of Robert Ward's The Crucible.

A long and productive association with Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston defined much of Alberts's work from the 1960s through the 1980s. Her first appearance with the company was as the mother in Hänsel und Gretel, followed shortly by Mistress Quickly in Falstaff in 1961. Over the following seventeen years she appeared in numerous productions, including the United States premieres of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron as the invalid woman in 1966, Roger Sessions's Montezuma as Cuaximatl in 1976, Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla as Ratmir in 1977, and Rodion Shchedrin's Dead Souls as Maslennilov in 1988. Her other Boston roles encompassed Magdalena in 1962, the voice of Antonia's mother in The Tales of Hoffmann in 1965, Kseniya's nurse in Boris Godunov in 1966, Mother Goose in The Rake's Progress in 1967, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu in 1968, Alice in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1969, Mary in The Flying Dutchman in 1970, Suzuki in 1974, Princess Marya Bolkonskaya in War and Peace in 1974, Beda Balanco in La vida breve in 1979, Wessener's mother in Die Soldaten in 1982, Junon in Orpheus in the Underworld in 1982, and Alkonost in The Invisible City of Kitezh in 1983.

Concurrent with her operatic work, Alberts remained active as a concert soloist. In 1963, following the death of President John F. Kennedy, she sang in the pontifical mass honoring Kennedy, which was broadcast nationally on CBS, performing Mozart's Requiem with the BSO. In 1964 she appeared with the BSO in Schubert works under conductor Erich Leinsdorf, and in 1965 she sang Handel's Messiah and Bach's B Minor Mass at Avery Fisher Hall under Hermann Scherchen.

Beyond performing, Alberts taught voice on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In 1990 she received the outstanding alumni award from the Boston Girls' Latin School. She retired from the stage in the late 1980s and died on April 13, 2012.