Reri grist biography
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Reri Grist is an internationally acclaimed lyric and coloratura soprano noted for her “silvery tone, flawless technique and stupendous acting.” Beginning her singing career as Consuelo in Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” in 1957, she introduced the song “Somewhere” to the public. After that performance she flowed gradually into a thirty-year career in opera, singing countless roles in opera houses across Europe and America. She also concertized and has passed on her insights through teaching voice in several countries.
Born in New York on February 29, 1932, to West Indies immigrant parents who encouraged her talent and self-discipline, Grist acted as a young teen in several musicals. She attended the High School of Music and Art and received a degree in music from Queens College, New York in 1954. Singing with Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic, she gained recognition that led to her official operatic debut at the Santa Fe Opera in 1959, as Adele in Die Fledermaus.
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RERI GRIST “In Celebration” A CD TRIBUTE (all photos courtesy Charles Mintzer)
I heard Reri Grist (born 1932) for the first time on the complete 1967 Rigoletto recording under Molinari-Pradelli. The first (and last time) I heard her live was at the Amsterdam opera which must have been her last operatic appearance anywhere too. It was a worthless piece of musical boredom by Morton Feldman called ‘Neither’ and Grist didn’t impress me at all, mind you she managed the acrobatic mish mash note jumping still rather well but it sounded all too monotonous and studied. Probably more the composer’s fault than hers and I pitied her that she had to study all that crap to get an assignment at that stage of her career. It also says a lot about her ability to conquer impossible scores.
So I was more than happy to receive this 3 cd box –sent to me bygd our collaborator Leslie Mickelson- enabling me to discover a wonderful coloratura talent an
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Reri Grist
American opera singer
Reri Grist (born February 29, 1932)[1] is an American coloraturasoprano, one of the pioneer African-American singers to enjoy a major international career in opera.
Life and career
[edit]Reri Grist was born in New York City, grew up in the East River Housing Projects, attended the High School of Music & Art, majored in voice, and graduated with a BA in music from Queens College, City University of New York.
In her early teens she performed on Broadway in small roles with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, including Robert Ardrey's 1946 play Jeb; and in musicals with Eartha Kitt while taking voice lessons with her teacher, Claire Gelda. Her first opera engagement was as Madame Herz in a concert performance of Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor. Her first staged "operatic" engagement was in 1956 as Cindy Lou (Micaela) in Carmen Jones, Oscar Hammerstein's adaptation of Bizet's Carmen.
She was Consuelo in the original productio