reviews_and_ramblings | Ariel D. Rubstein (1952

Ariel Rubstein was a singer with the Opera Company of Boston, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Portland Opera.

Ariel D. Rubstein, a soprano who performed throughout the United States and Europe, died on July 19, 1993, at her home in Manhattan. She was 41.

The cause was AIDS, her family said.

Ms. Rubstein made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1988 as Barena in an acclaimed concert version of Janacek's "Jenufa" by the Opera Orchestra of New York. The performance, which starred Gabriela Benackova and Leonie Rysanek, was recorded live and released on compact disk.

Ms. Rubstein was born in Portland, Ore., to parents in the performing arts. Her father, also named Ariel, was a Russian-born pianist, the director of the Portland School of Music and a founder of the Portland Opera. Her mother, the former Eleanor Reed, was a stage actress.

As a student, Ms. Rubstein was encouraged by Rudolf Serkin to pursue music. She studied at the Juilliard School and won a scholarship for studies in Vienna.

Ms. Rubstein performed with the Opera Company of Boston, the Houston Grand Opera, the Portland Opera and other ensembles throughout the United States. She also sang with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the New Orleans Philharmonic and other orchestras in the United States.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/22/obituaries/ariel-rubstein-dead-operatic-soprano-41.html

Further Readings:

Opera In The Flesh: Sexuality In Operatic Performance (Queer Critique) by Sam Abel
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Westview Press (March 25, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813329019
ISBN-13: 978-0813329017
Amazon: Opera In The Flesh: Sexuality In Operatic Performance

Verdi, Wagner, polymorphous perversion, Puccini, Brunnhilde, Pinkerton, and Parsifal all rub shoulders in this delightful, poetic, insightful, sexual book sprung by one man’s physical response to the power and exaggeration we call opera. Sam Abel applies a light touch as he considers the topic of opera and the eroticized body: Why do audiences respond to opera in a visceral way? How does opera, like no other art form, physically move watchers? How and why does opera arouse feelings akin to sexual desire? Abel seeks the answers to these questions by examining homoerotic desire, the phenomenon of the castrati, operatic cross-dressing, and opera as presented through the media.In this deeply personal book, Abel writes, “These pages map my current struggles to pin down my passion for opera, my intense admiration for its aesthetic forms and beauties, but much more my astonishment at how opera makes me lose myself, how it consumes me.” In so doing, Abel uncovers what until now, through dry musicology and gossipy history, had been left behind a wall of silence: the physical and erotic nature of opera. Although Abel can speak with certainty only about his own visceral response to opera, he provides readers with a language and a resonance with which to understand their own experiences. Ultimately, Opera in the Flesh celebrates the power of opera to move audiences as no other book has done. It is indeed a treasure of scholarship, passion, and poetry for everyone with even a passing interest in this fascinating art form.

Ariel D. Rubstein (1952 - July 19, 1993)

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