Hamari, Julia

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Hamari, Julia

Hamari, Julia, Hungarian mezzo-soprano; b. Budapest, Nov. 21, 1942. She studied with Fatime Martin. After further training at the Budapest Academy of Music, she won the Erkel competition in 1964, and then completed her studies at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik. In 1966 she made her debut as a soloist in the St. Matthew Passion in Vienna, and subsequently was notably successful as a concert and lieder artist in Europe. In 1967 she made her stage debut in Salzburg. In 1972 she made her U.S. debut as a soloist with the Chicago Sym. Orch. As an opera singer, she appeared with the opera houses in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart. On April 24, 1982, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Rossini’s Rosina. Her concert and lieder repertoire extends from Monteverdi to Verdi. Among her other operatic roles are Cherubino, Dorabella, Cenerentola, Carmen, and Octavian.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire