On December 16, Ruth Welting died at the age of 51 of ovarian cancer at her home in Asheville, North Carolina. She was one of America’s shining operatic stars during the 1970s and ‘80s and her premature passing has saddened not only colleagues but also her many fans. By 1996 Welting had retired from the operatic stage and was preparing to pursue an entirely new career path in government and foreign affairs. In 1994 she entered Syracuse University and graduated with a degree in liberal studies in 1998, at which time she entered the Maxwell School of Government at Syracuse.
For many Americans in the early 1970s, the 5’ 2” apple-cheeked dynamo represented a new breed of singer. At the time of her glory days at the New York City Opera, the fact that often drew the most attention was that she ran a mile and 1/2 around the Central Park reservoir every day. Vocally, what set her aside from many other artists was a rare blending of secure, often dazzling technique, an exquisite legato line, seemingly endless range and an obvious love for her work. She had a bright, sweet timbre and a formidable technique. She occasionally astounded listeners by interpolating high Gs and A flats. Her controversial cadenza in Lucia’s Mad Scene boasted not only high Fs of great power and ease but also trills on high D and E. (In the tradition of Frieda Hempel and Lily Pons, Welting sang the Mad Scene in its original key of F rather than E flat.). Her variants were fresh and governed by an instinctive understanding of their construction and stylistic differences, always exhibiting that infrequent union of elegance and imagination. In singer’s lingo, there was always a “face” to Ruth Welting’s singing.
Born in 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee, Welting originally intended to be a concert pianist, having studied for 15 years and won the gold medal in the National Guild of Piano Teacher’s Paderewski Competition. But the allure of singing led her to study for 3 years at Memphis State University and, then, on the recommendation of Gian Carlo Menotti, she went to Rome to study with the famous vocal coach, Luigi Ricci.
After her return to America, she auditioned for the NYCO and made her debut in 1971, at the age of 22, as Blondchen. Her success was immediate and was quickly followed by a series of roles including Lucia, Olympia, Adele, Rosina, Oscar, Zerlina and Despina. The 1970s, and 1980s found her singing throughout America, Spain, Italy, Holland, Canada, France and England being especially noted for her portrayals of Lakme, Lucia, Olympia, Fille du Regiment, La Fee in Cendrillon, Philine in Mignon and Ophelia (the famous 1990 Chicago revival of Hamlet with Sherrill Milnes).
She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Zerbinetta during the March 20, 1976 broadcast of Ariadne auf Naxos with Montserrat Caballe and during the next decade was Edita Gruberova’s only serious competition. She sang sporadically at the Met until October 1992 and her final performances as Olympia. The high point of her career came early: her unforgettable portrayal of Baby in Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe in the NYCO Telecast in April of 1976.
Her private life was often not an easy one. Welting endured a failed marriage to conductor Edo de Waart and the 1986 murder of her older sister, Patricia (a Metropolitan Opera singer for 3 seasons), who was shot by her husband, who then shot their two children and himself. Welting took control of her life and found solace in a re-affirmation of her faith, becoming a born-again Christian.
We are fortunate that she left two important recordings as her commercial legacy: a world-premiere recording of Massenet’s Cendrillon (Sony CD, in which she sings La Fee) and the first complete recording of Thomas’ Mignon with Marilyn Horne. (Re-released on Sony CD in 1999)
