Elizabeth Parcells
Elizabeth Parcells (/pɑːrˈsɛlz/; December 28, 1951, Detroit, Michigan – December 29, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American coloratura soprano. In the USA, she sang at the Michigan Opera Theater, the Boston Lyric Opera and The Washington (D.C.) Opera, among others.
Aged 16 she began her voice lessons and went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston).
Parcells was a winner of the 1977 Metropolitan Opera Council National Finals in New York City and was awarded a Pro Musicis Foundation sponsorship which helped launch her professional singing career. She moved to Switzerland Operastudio Zurich then moved to Germany where she sang at Augsburg, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, West Berlin, Basel, Switzerland and Stuttgart. During her concert career, Elizabeth Parcells sang at international festivals such as Tanglewood, Salzburg, Touraine, Bologne, Colorado, Luxembourg, Melk, Lisbon, Rheingau, Huddersfield and Torino. She recorded with the BBC, National Public Radio, Radio France, WDR Cologne and the Radio Luxembourg Orchestra.
Her roles included: "Olympia" in Tales of Hoffmann, "Norina" in Don Pasquale, "Zerbinetta" in Ariadne auf Naxos, "Queen of the Night" in The Magic Flute, and the title characters in Lucia di Lammermoor and Maria Stuarda.
Parcells' farewell recital was given at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in February 2005 under the sponsorship of the Pro Musicis Foundation, whose award so many years earlier had helped launch her career.
After living and working in Europe for over twenty years, where she was married in Germany since 1985 to Dierk-Eckhard Becker, Hamburg, Parcells returned home to Grosse Pointe, Michigan in 1997 to coach voice students at Oakland University in Rochester Hills and at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. In Germany Parcells worked as voice instructor at Bremen University until 1997.
She battled cancer for two and a half years and died the day after her 54th birthday.
References
- New York Times review by Allen Hughes (February 18, 1978), accessed 8 February 2010
- New York Times review by Edward Rothstein (October 18, 1981), accessed 8 February 2010
- New York Times obituary (January 8, 2006), accessed 8 February 2010
- Boston Globe obituary (January 8, 2006), accessed 8 February 2010
External links
- 1951 births
- 2005 deaths
- American expatriates in Germany
- American operatic sopranos
- Oakland University faculty
- Deaths from colorectal cancer
- Musicians from Detroit, Michigan
- Cancer deaths in Michigan
- 20th-century American singers
- 21st-century American singers
- 21st-century classical musicians
- Schoolcraft College faculty
- New England Conservatory alumni
- 20th-century opera singers
