Gloria Lane

Gloria Lane Krachmalnick (June 6, 1925 – November 22, 2016) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano born Gussie Siet in Trenton, New Jersey, the daughter of a junk dealer. Her performing career spanned from 1949 to 1976 and encompassed Broadway productions, major American opera companies, and leading European opera houses. She is particularly associated with the world premiere creations of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti and with the title role in Georges Bizet's Carmen.

Lane came to singing without formal training. In 1948 she won the Philadelphia Inquirer's annual Voice of Tomorrow Contest, which provided her the opportunity to study with Elizabeth Westmoreland in Philadelphia. The following year she received a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Center, where she made her professional debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing the title role in scenes from Carmen under director Boris Goldovsky.

Her Broadway career began in 1950 when she created the role of the Secretary of the Consulate in the world premiere of Menotti's The Consul, which opened first at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia before transferring to Broadway for an eight-month run. Lane subsequently performed the role in the United Kingdom at the Cambridge Theatre in February 1951 and in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in May 1951. For this performance she received the Clarence Derwent Award for best supporting actress in a musical role and two Donaldson Awards, for best supporting actress and best debut performance. She returned to Broadway in 1954 to create the role of Desideria in Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street, a Pulitzer Prize-winning work, and later reprised that role at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in 1968.

Lane made her debut with the New York City Opera in 1952 as the Secretary of the Consulate and remained a regular presence with the company through 1960. Her roles there included Amneris in Aida, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Antonia's mother in The Tales of Hoffmann, Evadne in Troilus and Cressida, Maddalena in Rigoletto, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Salud in La vida breve, and the title role in Carmen. In 1953 she sang the title role in L'incoronazione di Poppea with the American Opera Society and performed Carmen and Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Central City Opera. Her La Scala debut came in 1955, when she sang Desideria in The Saint of Bleecker Street, and she returned to that house in 1958 to sing Carmen.

Lane also worked extensively in American television opera during the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1957 she created the role of the Countess in the world premiere of Stanley Hollingsworth's La Grande Breteche, commissioned for the NBC Opera Theatre. For that same organization she portrayed Helene in War and Peace in 1957, Maddalena in Rigoletto in 1958, and Marina Mniszech in Boris Godunov in 1961.

Her international debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin came in 1957, where she sang Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo and Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. In 1958 she made her debuts at both the Glyndebourne Festival and the Edinburgh Festival as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. The following year she sang Carmen for her debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the San Francisco Opera, and repeated the role for her debut at the Opera Company of Boston in 1960.

During the 1960s Lane's career was centered primarily in Europe and Canada. She sang leading roles at a wide range of companies including the Canadian Opera Company, La Fenice, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, the Opéra National de Lyon, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro Massimo, the Teatro Regio di Parma, the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Vienna State Opera, and the Wexford Festival Opera, among others. In 1961 she created the role of Beatrice in the world premiere of Renzo Rossellini's Uno sguardo dal ponte at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, a role she also performed at the opera's American premiere with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company in 1967.

In the late 1960s Lane transitioned her voice type to dramatic soprano in an effort to expand her bookings. She sang Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana with the Vancouver Opera in 1971, followed that same year by the title role in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth at the Glyndebourne Festival. Her final staged performance was as Desdemona in Otello at the Hawaii Opera Theater in 1974. Her last major project was a 1976 recording of Katerina Ismailova in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District for RAI.

After retiring from performance, Lane settled in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she taught voice from a private studio. Her students included Pamela Scanlon, Christine Kelley, and Francis Liska. She was married to conductor Samuel Krachmalnick for fifty years.