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American soprano Dorothy Kirsten (1910–92) started her performing arts career as a radio singer at WINS-New York. In October 1947, Kirsten debuted in a leading role at San Francisco Opera in French composer Gustave Charpentier’s (1860–1956) 𝘓𝘰𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘦. Like other select stars, Kirsten performed consecutively at San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the early years before the companies’ seasons overlapped. During San Francisco Opera’s 1954 season, Kirsten sang as Manon Lescaut in Massenet’s 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘯 on September 28 and in Los Angeles on October 24, followed by a Metropolitan Opera production on February 2, 1955. She also starred in two American premieres for San Francisco Opera—English composer Sir William Turner Walton’s (1902–83) 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘢 in 1955 and French composer Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc’s (1899–1963) 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘮é𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 two years later. Dorothy Kirsten celebrated her twenty-fifth anniversary with San Francisco Opera on November 28, 1970, with a live broadcast of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s (1858–1924) 𝘛𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘢, the first radio transmission from the company in twenty-four years. Learn more about San Francisco Opera’s history in our exhibition “San Francisco Opera: A Centennial Celebration” which is on display, post-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1. https://bit.ly/SFOperaCentennial
This image was posted on April 14, 2023.