Laurel Hurley

Laurel Hurley (February 14, 1927 – December 6, 2013) was an American soprano born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, into a Pennsylvania Dutch family. Her mother, a church organist, provided her earliest musical instruction. After completing her secondary education at William Allen High School in Allentown, Hurley studied voice at the Hartt College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, now known as the University of Hartford Hartt School, where she performed the role of Norina in a school production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Hurley's performing career began on Broadway in 1943, when she made her debut at age sixteen as Kathie in Sigmund Romberg's operetta The Student Prince, subsequently continuing with the production on tour. Her work spanned musical theatre, operetta, and opera, encompassing both lyric and coloratura soprano repertoire. In 1947 she portrayed Margot Bonvalet opposite baritone Edward Roecker in Romberg's The Desert Song at the Detroit Opera, and in 1948 she starred in a revival of Jerome Kern's Sunny at the St. Louis Municipal Opera alongside Patricia Bowman and Hal Le Roy. In 1949 she appeared as Violetta in a DuMont Television Network broadcast of Verdi's La traviata with Paul Franke as Alfredo.

The early 1950s brought significant professional recognition. Following a tour as lead soprano with the Charles L. Wagner Opera Company, Hurley received the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Award in 1951. In March 1952 she sang Philine in Ambroise Thomas's Mignon at the New Orleans Opera alongside Blanche Thebom, and that summer she starred as Nina in A Night in Venice, based on the music of Johann Strauss II with a libretto by Ruth and Thomas Martin, at the Jones Beach Theater. On October 25, 1952, she debuted with the New York City Opera at New York City Center as Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, going on to perform numerous roles with that company over the following three years, including Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Violetta in La traviata, and Magnolia in the 1954 Broadway production of Show Boat. Also in 1953, she performed the role of Clorinda in Rossini's La Cenerentola with the New York City Opera, a work that had not been heard in New York for 125 years.

Hurley contributed to the Bel canto revival movement of the 1950s through her performances and recordings of works by Bellini and Rossini. Her debut with the American Opera Society in 1955 featured the role of Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula alongside Cesare Siepi, a work rarely staged at the time. In 1957 she performed Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Carnegie Hall with the AOS, an opera that had not been performed in the United States for a century. She also performed and recorded the role of Wanda in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein with the AOS at Carnegie Hall in 1959.

Hurley was additionally associated with several American premieres of rarely performed works. On January 15, 1954, she sang Helen of Troy in the United States premiere of Gluck's Paride ed Elena with the American Chamber Opera Society at Town Hall. On June 11, 1955, she portrayed Creuse in the United States premiere of Milhaud's Médée at the Brandeis University Music Festival, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. In 1958 she starred in the American premiere of Thomas Arne's Comus, presented by The Little Orchestra Society.

Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera took place on February 8, 1955, when she sang Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in a cast that included Zinka Milanov as Amelia, Richard Tucker as Riccardo, and conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. Hurley remained a principal artist at the Met for twelve years, through 1967, performing an extensive range of roles that included Gilda in Rigoletto, Violetta in La traviata, both Mimi and Musetta in La bohème, the Queen of the Night and Papagena in The Magic Flute, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Norina in Don Pasquale, Nedda in Pagliacci, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Despina in Così fan tutte, Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann, and the title role in La Périchole, among many others. RCA Victor released a live 1957 Met recording of The Magic Flute in 1960, featuring Hurley as the Queen of the Night with Lucine Amara as Pamina and Brian Sullivan as Tamino. Sony Classical released a previously unavailable live 1958 Met recording of La bohème in 2011, with Hurley as Musetta.

Beyond the Met, Hurley performed with the Opera Company of Boston, the New Orleans Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera. She portrayed the title role in Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe with the Central City Opera in 1959 and the Santa Fe Opera in 1961, and in 1962 she played Lola Markham in Moore's Gallantry for a CBS television broadcast. On July 18, 1961, she appeared in a concert performance of Mozart's Così fan tutte with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv under conductor Thomas Schippers, presented in celebration of the orchestra's twenty-fifth anniversary. In 1966 she sang Zerlina in the Opera Company of Boston's production of Don Giovanni under conductor Sarah Caldwell. She also performed as a soloist with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in Central Park in 1960, 1965, 1967, and 1968.

During her career Hurley also worked extensively in televised opera, performing with the NBC Opera Theatre in productions that included Così fan tutte as Fiordiligi in 1953, Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro in 1954, and the Queen of the Night opposite Leontyne Price's Pamina in The Magic Flute in 1956. In the summer of 1954 she portrayed Laurie in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at the Salt Lake City Music Festival on the campus of the University of Utah. In 1967 she gave a recital at Town Hall with pianist Samuel Sanders, performing Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate, world premieres of two art songs by Sergius Kagen, and works by Poulenc and Debussy.