Rise Stevens Singing

Risë Stevens (June 11, 1913–March 20, 2013) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who gained superstar-status during her twenty-three-year career with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Her most celebrated role was as the title character in Bizet’s Carmen, which she played for most of the 1940s and 1950s. Born in the Bronx in 1913, Stevens studied with well-known voice teacher Anna Schoen-René at the Julliard School for almost three years before going to Vienna to study with German opera singer Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Austrian-American opera producer Herbert Graf. She made her formal operatic debut in 1936 as Mignon in Prague before joining the Met in 1938. Stevens, who was known to a large public through her recordings and recitals, also made many appearances on radio, television, and movies, helping to democratize and introduce the rarefied world of opera to a larger audience.