Stratas, London, Gramm, Chookasian Metropolitan Opera Photo by Louis Melancon

Description

Teresa Stratas, George London, Donald Gramm, Lili Chookasian, Morley Meredith in The Last Savage  Metropolitan Opera Photo by Louis Melancon
Teresa Stratas, OC (born May 26, 1938 in Toronto, Ontario), is a retired operatic soprano from Canada of Greek descent. She is especially well known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.
George London (born George Burnstein; May 30, 1920 – March 24, 1985) was an American concert and operatic bass-baritone.
Donald John Gramm (February 26, 1927 – June 2, 1983) was
an American bass-baritone
whose career was divided between opera and concert performances. His appearances were primarily limited to the United States, which at the time was unusual for an American singer. John Rockwell of The New York Times described Gramm as follows: "He had an unusually rich, noble tone, and although its volume may not have been large, it penetrated even the biggest theaters easily. Technically, he could handle bel-canto ornamentation fluently. But his real strengths lay in his aristocratic musicianship (impeccable phrasing that he polished by accompanying himself at the piano, and an easy command of five languages) and his instinctive acting." Among the most notable of his many operatic roles were the title role in Verdi's Falstaff, Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Dr. Schön and Jack the Ripper in Berg's Lulu.
Lili Chookasian
(August 1, 1921 – April 9, 2012)
was an American contralto of Armenian ethnicity, who appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses.
She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties. She arose as one of the world's leading contraltos during the 1960s and 1970s, and notably had a long and celebrated career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1962 through 1986. She was admired for her sonorous, focused tone as well as her excellent musicianship. She often chose, against tradition, to sing oratorios from memory.
Morley Meredith (b Margolis). Baritone, b Winnipeg 8 Feb 1922, d Palm Beach, Florida, 3 Feb 2000
. He studied singing with W.H. Anderson and medicine at the University of Manitoba. He was winner, as Morley Margolis, in the CBC's 1948-9 'Singing Stars of Tomorrow', and went on to study with Boris Goldovsky at Tanglewood, Mass, with Alfredo Martino at Mannes College of Music in New York, and later (1959-60) with the Metropolitan Opera bass Melchiore Luise
Louis Mélançon
(1901-1974) was the in-house
photographer
for the Metropolitan Opera from 1947 to his death in 1974.