Beverly Bower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beverly Bower (September 30, 1925 – March 24, 2002) was an American operatic soprano who had an active international opera career from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s. She began her opera career at the New York City Opera where she sang between 1956 and 1963. She later worked mainly as a freelance artist with important opera companies throughout the United States and with a few opera companies in Europe.[1]
Possessing a warm lyrical voice with a considerable amount of power and dexterity, Bower was able to sing an unusually broad repertoire. She tackled coloratura soprano roles like Fiordiligi in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte and Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, lyric soprano roles like Micaëla in Georges Bizet's Carmen and Hanna Glawari in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, and spinto soprano roles like the title heroines in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Tosca. She even spent three years at the Metropolitan Opera singing mainly Wagnerian soprano roles.
Born in Olean, New York in 1925, Beverly was the daughter of Archie and Esther Bowser. Her first musical experiences were at the First Presbyterian Church of Olean where her family attended. At the young age of three she was already singing solos during church services. Bower's family further fostered her musical talent by enrolling her in piano and voice lessons at the age of seven with Olean native Henry Hill.[2]
In 1941 Bower won a scholarship to the famed Chautauqua Institute. In 1943 she moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to study voice privately under Clarence Reinhart, one of her principal teachers over the next sixteen years. During this time she also studied foreign languages, drama, and opera at the University of Pennsylvania and was mentored by famed soprano Helen Jepson who bequeathed many of her costumes to Bower after her retirement from the stage.[2]